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To curb climate change, greenhouse gases must not be emitted, be it CO2, methane or nitrous oxide. Our climate ranking shows where the biggest nations stand with their efforts.

Greenhouse gas emissions must fall - as quickly as possible. Every additional ton causes further warming of the atmosphere. For this reason, we use our new English-language "Net Zero Readiness Index" to look at how much 32 selected industrialized and emerging countries are emitting. Together, these countries account for 75 percent of global emissions.

Our ranking incorporates a total of 103 factors that the World Resources Institute sees as having an impact on the climate. These include national decarbonization commitments as well as country-specific framework conditions and issues such as population growth.

The key questions are: How much progress has been made toward climate neutrality? Which countries can become “emissions-neutral” by 2050?

Germany at the forefront of climate protection

The leader of our first global climate ranking is Norway, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark. Our ranking puts Germany in 5th place, which means it is among the countries making the most progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving climate neutrality in a global comparison.

Klimaschutz-Ranking Deutschland

Climate Protection Ranking Germany

"Germany's strong position can be attributed to cross-party ambitions and climate protection policies that are now well established," said Goran Mazar, Partner and Head of ESG at KPMG in Germany and the EMA region, assessing the result. "But our study also draws attention to some challenges: for example, the decision to phase out nuclear power and  - by 2038 at the latest  - coal as well, will be an enormous undertaking for the expansion of green energies to close the resulting energy gap." Connecting offshore wind farms to the network will also require further efforts, he added.

Can German industry be a climate protection role model?

In addition to national developments, we also examined the efforts of the five economic sectors with the highest emissions: energy, transport, real estate, industry and agriculture. A key factor in the index is implementation capability. This includes the number of patents for green technologies and clean technology companies, as well as rates of innovation.

In addition, many German industrial companies are exploring ways to decarbonize, such as using green hydrogen to make steel.

6 recommendations for a less warm world

With the Net Zero Readiness Index, we provide governments and the public sector, multilateral organizations, investors and financial institutions, the private sector and the general public with an accurate overview of the fight against climate change. The annual publications will show whether the goal of an emissions-neutral economy by 2050 is realistic.

Read now what the challenges are, what progress has been made and what six actions would accelerate the fight against global warming.