The 2016 Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) has now been released.
This GGEI is a data-driven assessment of how 80 countries and 50 cities perform in the global green economy, as well as how experts evaluate that performance. The GGEI provides an integrated view of national green performance, measuring emissions, the environment, investment, green innovation and efficiency sectors like buildings, transport and energy through one unified framework. The perceptions captured through the GGEI are also valuable, showing where green growth opportunities are recognized globally, and where they are being missed.
The full GGEI report, including profiles for each of the countries covered, can be accessed here.
Some select findings from this 5th edition of the GGEI include:
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Sweden is again the top performing country in the 2016 GGEI, followed by the other “Nordics” and Switzerland,Germany, and Austria. Amidst these strong results, the GGEI identified areas where these countries can improve their green performance further. These opportunities – focused around innovation, green branding and carbon efficiency - could propel their national green performance forward even more in the future.
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Developing countries in Africa and Latin America – including Ethiopia, Zambia, Brazil, and Costa Rica – also perform well in this new GGEI edition, ranking in the top fifteen for performance. While Brazil and Costa Rica receive similarly strong results on our perception survey, Ethiopia and Zambia do not, suggesting a need for better green branding and communications in these two African countries.
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Like in 2014, Copenhagen is the top green city, followed by Stockholm, Vancouver, Oslo and Singapore. This new GGEI only collected perception values for green cities as lack of data availability continues to impede our efforts to develop a comprehensive green city performance index. Given the significant role of cities in the global green economy, city-level data development is an urgent priority.
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No country in Asia ranks well for performance on this new GGEI, with the exception of Cambodia, which was the most improved country as compared to the last edition, rising 22 spots to 20th China, India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea do better on the perception side of the GGEI, but continue to register concerning performance results.
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While many European Union (EU) members perform near the top of this GGEI edition, others including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia rank near the bottom. These results are worrisome and suggest uneven national green performance across the EU.
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Many of the countries with high annual GDP growth today rank poorly on the GGEI, further highlighting the limits to GDP as a growth indicator. These countries are mostly in Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines) and Africa (Nigeria,Tanzania).
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Countries with a high reliance on fossil fuel extraction and export generally perform poorly on the GGEI, with a few exceptions. Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia all perform poorly while Norway and Canada do much better.
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Rapidly growing economies, China and India continue to show performance weakness on the GGEI Markets & Investment dimension. Given the large investment required to achieve their climate targets, green investment promotion, cleantech innovation, and corporate sustainability should be developed further.
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The United States ranks near the top of the GGEI perception survey and it is widely viewed as a vital market for green investment and innovation, yet overall the U.S. continues to have mediocre performance results, ranking 30th of the 80 countries covered. However, the GGEI found that U.S. company-level initiatives to green supply chains and reduce carbon footprints are accelerating.
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Despite having a new prime minister, Australia continues to register a poor result on this new GGEI, ranking 55th of the 80 countries covered for performance. While green markets there are showing some strength, the overall carbon intensity of the Australian economy remains extremely high.
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Hosting the annual Conference of Parties (COP) can positively impact the host country’s green brand. Yet this short-term image boost does not always translate to improved green performance in the longer-term, as demonstrated by the low GGEI performance results for Poland (COP19), Qatar (COP18) and South Africa (COP17).
- The United Kingdom’s GGEI performance continues to lag behind its EU peers, ranking 25th of the 80 countries covered. While the UK does very well on both the perception and performance side of the Markets & Investment dimension, inconsistent policies supporting renewable energy and green growth continue to hurt the UK on other parts of the GGEI.
A shortened link to the full GGEI report is here: https://goo.gl/DvFqLv
Country profiles and graphs from the GGEI report can also be accessed through the Tableau Public profile here. Please visit our website here for full transparency on the data sources for the performance index, the structure of the perception survey, our methodology and frequently asked questions.
Please contact Jeremy Tamanini (jeremy at dualcitizeninc dot com) for additional information.
