Common Dreams / Published on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 by Agence France Presse
Oil-consuming giants the United States and China along with oil-producing behemoth Saudi Arabia rank among the world's worst countries in dealing with climate change, a report said.
Their dependence on fossil fuels coupled with what some see as short-sighted energy policies earned them the dubious distinction of placing at or near the bottom of a survey of 56 industrialized or industrializing nations, it said.
The United States, the world's leading polluter, ranked 53 in the annual study by Germanwatch, a German environmental group, released here on the sidelines of a UN climate change conference.
Saudi Arabia placed dead last, while China fell from 29 on last year's list to 54, according to the survey based on an evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions and climate policy, it said.
The United States has refused to accept mandatory cuts of the emissions blamed for the earth's rising temperatures and has consistantly rated poorly on environmental policy matters, according the group.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, was chided for its poor national and international climate policy and energy inefficiency.
Experts suggested that China, the world's number two polluter, tumbled so significantly because of its growing dependence on carbon-intensive electricity generation to fuel its exploding economy.
At the upper end of the scale, seven European countries -- led by Sweden, Britain and Denmark, respectively -- and a trio of developing economies -- Argentina, Brazil, and India -- were deemed among the top ten, it said.
Others in the top ten were Malta, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland, while France ranked 12th, leading the group to call for Europe to take the lead in global efforts to combat climate change.
"It is clear from this study a coalition of European countries and some of the large developing countries and those with leading environmental policy ... should take the helm of a coalition to build our future climate regime on," Germanwatch policy director Christoph Bals said.
At the same time, he lamented that even the efforts of the top scorers were not enough to effectively curb and reverse global warming.
"There is no winner," Bals said. "The leader, Sweden, is only the one-eyed king among the blind."
The study looked at greenhouse gas emissions over the past year, over the past five years and environmental and climate policies.
Only countries that release more than a one-percent share of all greenhouse gas emissions and rapidly developing economies are targeted by the evaluation.
