Ireland has jumped nine spots in climate change performance rankings and is now the 37th best performing country globally.

However, the 2023 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) published this week at COP27 sees Ireland ranked just one spot ahead of Brazil and some 26 spots behind its nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom, which came in 11th place.

On the rankings, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said that Ireland’s reputation as a climate laggard is “changing” but warned that all sectors, particularly transport and agriculture, “now need to put the foot to the pedal” to improve their climate performance.

The CCPI rankings cover 92% of global greenhouse gas emissions and this year, they found that “no county is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change”.

‘Progress quickly’

Minister Ryan suggested that to improve Ireland’s climate change performance, “the areas that are likely to be difficult are the areas of transport and agriculture”.

However, speaking on RTÉ radio, he highlighted that the latest CCPI analysis does not incorporate the latest environmental schemes and incentives developed for farmers, including ACRES and new forestry premiums.

“In agriculture, while it tends to get all of the attention, in my mind, it’s one of the areas where we will see progress quickly.

Because if you look at it again, what the Government has done last week, which wouldn’t have been in time for this international report, the new forestry programme. [It] will give farmers the income to both continue farming and engage in forestry,” he said.

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