The expansion of green energies is making progress worldwide, even in countries where researchers would not necessarily have expected it. Germany slips in the new climate protection ranking.
Electric cars: boom due to high fuel prices. Photo: IMAGO/Christian Ender
Speed through technology: Renewable energies, storage systems and electric cars are driving climate protection forward worldwide, while politics is stalling in many places. Emissions are expected to fall in 2026.
Electrification alone is not enough: it only works with renewable electricity; with fossil fuels it is not considered a green transformation.
Germany in 25th place: National climate policy received the worst rating since the ranking was established, partly because of the abolition of the mandatory quota for renewable heating.
G20 weak, China divided: Most G20 countries perform poorly. China is leading in the expansion of renewable energies, but is far down in the overall ranking.
The summary was created and editorially checked using AI.
Berlin. Climate protection is under political pressure in many parts of the world. But the spread of renewable energies, storage technologies and electric cars is increasingly becoming a driver in the fight against global warming. This is a key finding from the new 2027 climate protection ranking by the environmental and development organization Germanwatch and the New Climate Institute think tank.
“We are observing a striking contrast: Politically, climate protection is often making slow progress, and in some countries like the USA it is even going backwards. But technologically and economically there is an incredible amount of dynamism,” says the study’s lead author, Jan Burck from Germanwatch.
Since 2005, the authors have been comparing the climate protection efforts of 64 countries plus the EU once a year. Together, these countries account for more than 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. More than 500 experts worldwide contributed to the report this year, including assessing the extent to which countries are taking appropriate action to move toward a path consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement.
In 2015, at the climate conference in the French capital, the global community agreed to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius and at the same time make efforts to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. According to the United Nations, the world is currently on track to reach 2.8 degrees by the end of the century.
The new ranking will be presented this Wednesday morning at the World Climate Conference in Turkey. Niklas Höhne from the New Climate Institute expects emissions to fall in 2026, for the first time since the corona pandemic, which caused emissions to fall. “The rapid growth in the field of renewable energies and the progress in electrification as well as the reduced deforestation have helped to create the foundations for this change,” said Höhne.
Höhne wrote on Tuesday on the LinkedIn platform that it has never been so easy and cheap to pursue climate protection. With the high oil and gas prices caused by the energy crisis, electric cars, heat pumps and electrical processes in industry are particularly attractive. “Registrations of electric cars are going through the roof worldwide.” He warned against further investments in fossil fuels. “The global temperature will only stop rising when we stop burning coal, oil and gas.”
Electrification in focus
On Tuesday, the international research association Global Carbon Project published its forecast for global CO₂ emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. According to researchers' estimates, these will decrease slightly in the current year 2026. However, other emissions that are harmful to greenhouse gases, such as methane emissions, are not taken into account in this report.
However, electrification alone is not enough to slow global warming. According to the authors, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, for example, have relatively high levels of electrification, but renewable energies still play a limited role in overall energy supply.
» Read also: Türkiye wants to electrify the world – but with what electricity?
Marc Weissgeber, managing director of the international think tank E3G in Germany, recently told Handelsblatt that the crucial question is how exactly electrification will come about. Electrification using fossil fuels is not a green transformation. A new global financial coalition launched at the climate conference in Turkey on Tuesday to mobilize investment in clean electrification in developing countries. A work program is to be developed in 2027 under the leadership of the World Bank.
Germany just mediocre
Germany has fallen to 25th place in the ranking for its activities for more climate protection. “Never since our index was founded has Germany been rated so poorly in terms of national climate policy,” says Burck. “Half of the EU states have better grades.”
This year, around 500 experts supported the ranking. They evaluate and weight four categories:
Emissions level and trend (40 percent)
Expansion of renewable energies (20 percent)
Energy use (20 percent)
Climate policy (20 percent)
Germany has set itself the goal of becoming greenhouse gas neutral by 2045. In September, the Federal Cabinet approved a plan to phase out fossil fuels in the areas of energy, industry, buildings and transport. However, it does not contain any new political measures, it is said critically. Rather, the German government has been acting in a rather backward-looking climate policy since it took office in May 2025.
According to the study, this includes dropping the mandatory quota for renewable energies for new heating systems. The expansion of gas production is also viewed critically, especially that new gas power plants do not have to be operated in a climate-neutral manner until the end of 2045. “These conditions create a significant risk of long-term dependence on fossil fuels,” it said. On the other hand, the investment conditions for more electrification are considered inadequate.
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Denmark is once again at the top of the ranking, but only in fourth place. The top three places remain symbolically vacant because none of the countries are doing enough to achieve the Paris climate goals. Denmark is followed by Lithuania and Luxembourg. The worst EU countries are Slovakia, Croatia and Poland.
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G20 countries weak
According to the authors, most of the G20 countries are performing poorly, including Turkey, which is hosting this year's climate conference. The G20 countries are responsible for a good 80 percent of global CO₂ emissions. The largest greenhouse gas emitter, China, can also be found far down in the ranking. The biggest weak point: the now high emissions per capita and the high energy consumption.
However, China is at the top in one category: the expansion of renewable energies - on a par with several oil and gas states "that one would not necessarily have expected there," it is said. “Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan have followed the example of the United Arab Emirates and are massively expanding their previously small renewable energy capacities.”
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