Romania ranks 38th in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2022 published by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network. The country dropped eight spots from last year, when it ranked 30th, at the same time falling from the medium- into the low-performing countries.

Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 60 countries and the European Union (EU), which together generate 90%+ of global greenhouse gas emissions. It assesses countries’ performance in four categories: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use, and climate policy.

While it still received a medium rating in the GHG Emissions category, Romania dropped in the other three categories. It is now a medium in Energy Use (ranking 20th), low in Renewable Energy (41st), and very low in Climate Policy (52nd).

“Despite president Klaus Iohannis’ statements at COP26, we are far from reaching our climate targets. The fact that we are falling further and further in this ranking shows the inaction and inefficient measures the authorities are taking to protect the environment. Romania scored poorly on renewable energy, for which the measures to stimulate investments, promised for more than two years, have not yet been implemented,” commented Laura Nazare, Coordinator of the energy transition campaign, Bankwatch Romania.

CCPI experts note that Romania’s climate mitigation measures thus far are not comprehensive and lack strategic coherence. The government is mainly focusing on (natural) fossil fuels as a key transition technology to reduce GHG emissions. On a positive note, however, in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the government announced a phase-out for both lignite and hard coal by 2032.

Due to the slow growth of renewable energy, projections show Romania will not meet the EU target of 32% renewables by 2030, even though their actual share in the energy mix is already 25%, the CCPI specialists also said. This shows Romania’s need to speed up its policy ambition in this regard, as there are no support schemes or mechanisms in place. The experts particularly note strong potential in offshore wind power, for which the government is, in fact, developing a strategy.

In the overall ranking, the EU dropped six places to 22nd in this year’s CCPI. It received medium ratings for all four CCPI categories: GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use, and Climate Policy.

However, no country performed well enough in all index categories to achieve an overall very high rating in the index. Therefore, once again, the first three ranks of the overall ranking remained empty. Denmark is this year’s top-performing country, followed by Sweden and Norway.

The full report is available here, while data on Romania can be found here.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)