Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an annual scoring system that evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 63 countries and the European Union. It is published by the German organisation Germanwatch e.V. in cooperation with the NewClimate Institute and Climate Action Network International, with financial support from the Barthel Foundation.
Since the 2009 edition, the CCPI has left the first three ranking positions unoccupied because no country has achieved performance across all indicators that qualifies as very high. The index states that no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change, so no country has earned a spot on the podium.
Denmark holds fourth place in the most recent CCPI editions, making it the highest-ranked country in the world according to the index. It scored 80.52 in the 2026 edition. The first three places remain unoccupied by design.
The CCPI assesses countries across greenhouse gas emissions (weighted at 40 percent), renewable energy (20 percent), energy use (20 percent), and climate policy (20 percent). Each of the first three categories is measured by four equally weighted indicators covering current levels, recent trends, and compatibility with 2-degree targets.
The three lowest-ranked countries in the 2024 CCPI were the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. In the 2023 edition, the bottom three were Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan.
The CCPI was first published in 2005. Its methodology was revised in 2017 to align with the Paris Agreement, adding measures of progress toward Nationally Determined Contributions and countries' 2030 targets.