World Wildlife Fund

Climate

Earth Hour

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change. Learn more

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What We Know About Climate Change

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Video Credit: Peter Sinclair, Greenman Studio LLC

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Take action through WWF's Conservation Action Network, where you can speak out for wildlife and wild places around the globe.
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Climate

G8 Climate Scorecards

Released by World Wildlife Fund and global insurance company Allianz SE, the G8 Climate Scorecard rates the climate performance of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America, with background information for China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Download the full report for a complete listing of G8 scorecards and analysis

The new analysis presents recent and expected emission developments of each country and various other indicators, and gives an overview of the most important activities by the federal governments to respond to the threat of climate change. The overall performance of the G8 countries is assessed by comparing three groups of indicators:

Improvements since 1990
Current status
Policies for the future

In addition, G8 countries’ performance in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and the development of the carbon market are summarized separately. The core benchmark of this assessment is whether countries are on track to reduce emissions by 95 % until 2050.

Video of G8 Scorecards

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Ranking highest in the analysis are Germany, the United Kingdom and France, each of which has slashed it greenhouse gas emissions and has already met its targets under the Kyoto Protocol. By comparison, U.S. emissions have risen substantially, increasing by about 15 percent since 1990. The European nations have also made far greater progress than the U.S. in growing their clean energy sectors.

G8 Scorecard for the United States

As Congress debates landmark energy and climate legislation, the scorecard analysis finds the United States lags far behind most other G8 nations in building a clean energy economy and cutting greenhouse gas pollution. ranked in seventh place, just ahead of Canada and behind Russia – an improvement over previous years when it was typically ranked last.

The bump this year is largely due to progress in Congress toward passing comprehensive energy and climate legislation, clean energy investments in the economic stimulus package, and strong leadership by President Obama on climate change, including his efforts to strengthen vehicle fuel economy and lighting efficiency standards.