The source and source story is a study that ranked environmental performance based on climate change performances in 2006, which was a little complicated to try and explain in the headline statistic.
The countries were ranked based on the amount of emissions they produced over the past year, the amount of reductions they made to their emissions levels and the strength of their climate-change policies.
There was no real detail on how much things were weighed, but needless to say, per capita emissions had to be part of the calculations based on some small countries’ output.
The five lowest ranked countries, starting with the worst, were:
- Saudi Arabia
- The United States
- Australia
- Canada
- Luxembourg
That Saudi Arabia was worst is of no surprise to me. They have high overall emissions, never mind per capita. They haven’t done much about it, either. The US and Australia are no surprises, either, but that Canada is that low on the list was a small surprise. I knew we weren’t CO2 saints, but this is a new low for the country. Finally, little Luxembourg is a big surprise. Whatever they’re doing for CO2 emissions, and whatever they’re not doing to curb it, I haven’t heard anything about it, whether CO2 or ecological footprint or otherwise. Their presence is why I said per capita emissions had to be a part of the calculations.
The five best countries were:
- Sweden
- Germany
- Iceland
- Mexico
- India
I don’t know what to make of this list because for countries like Mexico and India, I know about many of their other environmental problems so they have a bad image, but may be quite good for CO2 emissions. Per capita emissions might have helped India be lowest on that list of 56 countries, but I still have a problem because they do have a very large population and much of their energy isn’t clean, either. But whatever. I posted this entry for the headline statistic but could not leave the rest of the story without a comment given some details that might have misled readers.
I’m not sure I’m convinced Germany is second only to Sweden, either, but that again could be based on my knowledge of other Scandanavian environmental situations rather than their CO2 emissions that is biasing my opinion. The source is also German, in part, so it does raise an eyebrow like Spock on Star Trek, but the European But I’ll leave those thoughts at that for your consideration. [Envirostats author]
Canada, with its overall ranking of 53rd out of 56 countries, has fallen from last year, when it was ranked 51st.
“The [Canadian] government is still not making a serious effort to cut greenhouse gas pollution, and that leaves Canada at the back of the pack,” Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute said in a news release.
The Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental organization, contributed to the study.
“The gap between the government’s rhetoric and its action to date severely weakens Canada’s credibility here in Bali,” Bramley said.
‘Hypocrisy in Canada’s approach’
Bramley, in an interview from Bali, said Canada is making unrealistic demands on other countries, considering the poor job it’s doing, according to the study.
Bramley said Canada could have boosted its ranking over last year by at least 20 positions, to the middle of the pack, if it had strengthened its government policies overseeing areas like industrial emissions.
“Minister Baird is taking some highly obstructive positions coming into these negotiations, particularly the kinds of demands that he’s making of developing countries,” Bramley said.
“When we see how poorly Canada is performing on climate change, it really points to a kind of hypocrisy in Canada’s approach.”
Baird and the Conservative government have pledged to reduce Canada’s overall emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020, but environmentalists and opposition members of parliament have attacked this plan because it fails to meet Canada’s Kyoto obligations.
Under Kyoto, which was signed by Canada under a Liberal government in 1998, Canada is expected to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.
Kyoto was ratified by 141 countries, with each having slightly different targets to meet in an effort to reduce overall global emissions by about five per cent from 1990 levels.
- Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Dec 7 2007
