**Belgium barely ranks 49th on the new Climate Change Performance Index, which assesses the climate performance of 60 countries plus the European Union. Our country has thus dropped 9 places compared to last year and is doing much worse than the European average. Even emerging countries like China and India are ranked higher.**
The Climate Change Performance Index is a climate ranking that has been published every year since 2005 by a group of international NGOs working on climate change. With the ranking they monitor the climate performance of the different countries and they also want to use it to encourage more efforts. The index is calculated on the basis of four factors: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy consumption and climate policy. The ranking includes 60 countries plus the European Union. Together, these countries are responsible for 92 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
**Even India and China do better**
With its 49th place, Belgium stands between countries such as Belarus, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Our country scores low on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, climate policy and even ‘very low’ on energy consumption.
Our country’s score is in sharp contrast to that of our neighboring countries and the European average. Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are all in the top 20. The European Union as a whole is 22nd. The first three places in the ranking remain empty, as no country reaches the limits for these. The best performing countries are Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The Netherlands, in turn, is one of the strongest risers: with ten places added, it is now 19th.
India, in turn, is remarkably 10th. Although it is one of the largest growing countries, it emits relatively few greenhouse gases per capita. It also gets good scores in the other areas. China, which consumes a lot of energy and also emits a lot of greenhouse gases, does receive a good score for climate policy, and thus ends up in 37th place, 12 places above Belgium.
**Where does it go wrong?**
Our country, with its 49th place, is dangling at the bottom. According to the environmental organizations that signed the ranking for our country (Bond Beter Leefmilieu, WWF, Greenpeace and Inter-Environment Wallonie), this poor score is due to the delay incurred over several years.
“Our country had no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions during the 2014-2019 legislature and the reductions observed in 2020 are due more to the covid 19 crisis situation than to the structural action of our governments. New climate targets have been set at the federal, Walloon and Brussels levels in line with the European climate ambition. But that is not yet the case in Flanders, where the government even wants to weaken the Belgian contribution to the European targets, and regularly blocks the possibilities of a more ambitious national positioning for the climate,” it sounds in their press release.
The organizations are asking the Flemish government to validate the Belgian contribution to the European objective (at least 47% less greenhouse gas emissions). Because the climate plan that Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) announced last week only mentions a 40% reduction in emissions. The organizations also want the regional and federal governments to work on a national climate plan to distribute the climate efforts, and also take short-term measures to structurally reduce our country’s emissions.
Vlaams ecorealisme is een beleid van zo weinig mogelijk doen, zo veel mogelijk uitstellen.
Naieve ik was zo hoopvol na de klimaatmarsen en Groen voor het eerst weer in de regering.
Why are China an India ranked higher if they pollute more
I swear this country is run by a bunch of fucking retards
If you have a high agriculture, a lot of industries and a small surface, then it’s logical that we have a high output? What are we gonna do? Everyone with a bicycle and become vegetarian?
How does this ranking rank on international rankings?
surprised? belgiums main ingredients are old money and dilettantism. it has always been “old school” in the best sense, or “backwards/behind” in the worst.
If you wish to understand more about belgiums climate actions in detail: http://www.klimaatlijn.be (available in all languages) (if you have feedback pls pm me)
I don’t feel like I should care about an imaginary ranking that some NGO’s whose livelyhood depends upon keeping this charade up.
[deleted]
Of course with the Flanders that keep doing their best to avoid any actual effort in this matter, it isn’t a surprise at all.
*staart intens naar 3M
I think this is a bit skewed – If anything, the pollutants in India are worse (I live in india). The last 4 days have been smog filled and I haven’t seen any improvement lately. There are some parameters which make the result look better than it actually is.
And the idea of having every person driving an electric car by 2030 and renovating houses to be more efficient… it’s nice, but it’s not the problem. They’re just pushing it all in the shoes of normal citizens.
But then we’ll have to heat our houses and load our cars with dirty electricity and probably get black-outs because their ancient net can’t handle it.
Nevermind the bigger transport industry (ships, planes, trucks,…) still running on fossil fuel and dirtying the atmosphere further. And the construction of said electric cars being dirty as well (steel industry is incredibly CO2-taxing, and the mining for battery resources isn’t clean either)…
Put resources into getting clean energy, which can be done rather fast using hyper-modern nuclear power plants (and maintain them properly, not like Doel), as intermediate solution until we can sustain using renewable sources. Sure, there’s nuclear waste, but no CO2 production.
Put resources into alternatives to create steel/concrete/… that aren’t damaging to the environment.
That, combined with waning standard citizens away from using fossil fuels and gas in favour of electric options is going to help. Not just forcing us to spend heaps of money to use electricity, when the sources for all those products are still very damaging.
I really want to put in effort. The problem is I can’t do it on my own, both financially and time-wise (as in, produce my own clean energy, produce my own clean vehicle, produce my own food,… all while working and paying taxes they throw out the window). It’s a group effort, and as usual, our government wants to pass the buck and throw a blanket over the real issue.
Politiek: “we moeten nog meer belastingen heffen om ~~onze zakken te vullen~~ het klimaat te redden!
17 comments
**Belgium barely ranks 49th on the new Climate Change Performance Index, which assesses the climate performance of 60 countries plus the European Union. Our country has thus dropped 9 places compared to last year and is doing much worse than the European average. Even emerging countries like China and India are ranked higher.**
The Climate Change Performance Index is a climate ranking that has been published every year since 2005 by a group of international NGOs working on climate change. With the ranking they monitor the climate performance of the different countries and they also want to use it to encourage more efforts. The index is calculated on the basis of four factors: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy consumption and climate policy. The ranking includes 60 countries plus the European Union. Together, these countries are responsible for 92 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
**Even India and China do better**
With its 49th place, Belgium stands between countries such as Belarus, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Our country scores low on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, climate policy and even ‘very low’ on energy consumption.
Our country’s score is in sharp contrast to that of our neighboring countries and the European average. Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are all in the top 20. The European Union as a whole is 22nd. The first three places in the ranking remain empty, as no country reaches the limits for these. The best performing countries are Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The Netherlands, in turn, is one of the strongest risers: with ten places added, it is now 19th.
India, in turn, is remarkably 10th. Although it is one of the largest growing countries, it emits relatively few greenhouse gases per capita. It also gets good scores in the other areas. China, which consumes a lot of energy and also emits a lot of greenhouse gases, does receive a good score for climate policy, and thus ends up in 37th place, 12 places above Belgium.
**Where does it go wrong?**
Our country, with its 49th place, is dangling at the bottom. According to the environmental organizations that signed the ranking for our country (Bond Beter Leefmilieu, WWF, Greenpeace and Inter-Environment Wallonie), this poor score is due to the delay incurred over several years.
“Our country had no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions during the 2014-2019 legislature and the reductions observed in 2020 are due more to the covid 19 crisis situation than to the structural action of our governments. New climate targets have been set at the federal, Walloon and Brussels levels in line with the European climate ambition. But that is not yet the case in Flanders, where the government even wants to weaken the Belgian contribution to the European targets, and regularly blocks the possibilities of a more ambitious national positioning for the climate,” it sounds in their press release.
The organizations are asking the Flemish government to validate the Belgian contribution to the European objective (at least 47% less greenhouse gas emissions). Because the climate plan that Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) announced last week only mentions a 40% reduction in emissions. The organizations also want the regional and federal governments to work on a national climate plan to distribute the climate efforts, and also take short-term measures to structurally reduce our country’s emissions.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Vlaams ecorealisme is een beleid van zo weinig mogelijk doen, zo veel mogelijk uitstellen.
Naieve ik was zo hoopvol na de klimaatmarsen en Groen voor het eerst weer in de regering.
Why are China an India ranked higher if they pollute more
I swear this country is run by a bunch of fucking retards
If you have a high agriculture, a lot of industries and a small surface, then it’s logical that we have a high output? What are we gonna do? Everyone with a bicycle and become vegetarian?
How does this ranking rank on international rankings?
surprised? belgiums main ingredients are old money and dilettantism. it has always been “old school” in the best sense, or “backwards/behind” in the worst.
If you wish to understand more about belgiums climate actions in detail: http://www.klimaatlijn.be (available in all languages) (if you have feedback pls pm me)
I don’t feel like I should care about an imaginary ranking that some NGO’s whose livelyhood depends upon keeping this charade up.
[deleted]
Of course with the Flanders that keep doing their best to avoid any actual effort in this matter, it isn’t a surprise at all.
*staart intens naar 3M
I think this is a bit skewed – If anything, the pollutants in India are worse (I live in india). The last 4 days have been smog filled and I haven’t seen any improvement lately. There are some parameters which make the result look better than it actually is.
And the idea of having every person driving an electric car by 2030 and renovating houses to be more efficient… it’s nice, but it’s not the problem. They’re just pushing it all in the shoes of normal citizens.
But then we’ll have to heat our houses and load our cars with dirty electricity and probably get black-outs because their ancient net can’t handle it.
Nevermind the bigger transport industry (ships, planes, trucks,…) still running on fossil fuel and dirtying the atmosphere further. And the construction of said electric cars being dirty as well (steel industry is incredibly CO2-taxing, and the mining for battery resources isn’t clean either)…
Put resources into getting clean energy, which can be done rather fast using hyper-modern nuclear power plants (and maintain them properly, not like Doel), as intermediate solution until we can sustain using renewable sources. Sure, there’s nuclear waste, but no CO2 production.
Put resources into alternatives to create steel/concrete/… that aren’t damaging to the environment.
That, combined with waning standard citizens away from using fossil fuels and gas in favour of electric options is going to help. Not just forcing us to spend heaps of money to use electricity, when the sources for all those products are still very damaging.
I really want to put in effort. The problem is I can’t do it on my own, both financially and time-wise (as in, produce my own clean energy, produce my own clean vehicle, produce my own food,… all while working and paying taxes they throw out the window). It’s a group effort, and as usual, our government wants to pass the buck and throw a blanket over the real issue.
Politiek: “we moeten nog meer belastingen heffen om ~~onze zakken te vullen~~ het klimaat te redden!
– Pretends to be shocked –