Durban: From the 61 countries assessed for the year 2011, Egypt's overall ranking is 21 on the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) released by Germanwatch, CAN-Europe, and IndyACT in Durban at the UN climate talks. The report looked at the climate policies, emission levels, and existing legislation for 61 countries around the world both developing and developed, and ranked them according to these above factors. The assessment for Egypt included in this report is based on all the data provided in the 2nd National Communication Climate Change Report that was released in June 2010 and further developments that have occurred in the country since the Revolution in Egypt. Saudi Arabia is ranked the lowest as number 61. However, with respect to the ranking for Emissions Trend and Emissions Level, Egypt ranks at 39 and 35 respectively. This indicates that Egypt's current emissions are continuing to rise. What is promising however, is that the ranking for Climate Policy indicates a ranking of 7, which indicates that although Egypt's emissions are continuing to rise, they have instigated some efficient climate policies and legislations domestically that will hopefully regulate the Emissions Trend and level in the future. Egypt's ranking for 2010 which was released last year at Cancun in the COP16 negotiations, was 17 which indicates that Egypt has dropped in their climate performance ranking since last year from 17 to 21. This could be due to several reasons including the fact that domestic legislation on several issues relating to climate policy have been paused and put on hold due to the Revolution this year. Such policies and legislation include the feed-in-tariff for renewable energies, as well as policies related to natural resource subsidies. The drop in the ranking also indicates that their emissions trend is continuing to rise in all sectors in Egypt. South Africa, the host of the UN climate conference, is ranked 38th. Its results have two sides: On the one hand, emissions in South Africa are increasing, but on the other hand experts gave it a relatively good national policy rating. None of the 58 highest-emitting countries has done enough to prevent dangerous climate change, leaving ranks one to three open. The next ranks went to three European countries, Sweden, UK and Germany. The countries ranked worst this year are Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kazakhstan. Overall, the ranking was influenced by the worldwide economic crisis. This resulted in higher growth of emissions in emerging economies compared to industrial countries. The CCPI 2012 evaluates and ranks the 58 highest-emitting countries based on both CO2 emissions and climate policies. This year, more than 200 experts from the respective countries have assisted with analyzing national policies. –Daily News Egypt
