A new ranking of efforts to combat climate change, drawn up by the University of Liège's Hugo Observatory and the Degroof Petercam Asset Management (DPAM) bank, places Belgium near the bottom of the list of the countries analysed.
The Paris Performance Ranking assessed 23 industrialised countries according to their compliance with the Paris Agreement, the main aim of which is to keep global warming well below +2°C and, if possible, limit it to +1.5°C.
The performance analysis is based on six criteria: current emissions, projected emissions, the 'net zero' (climate neutrality) target, adaptation, resources allocated to implementation, and multilateral transparency.
In the rankings published on Tuesday, the second day of the 29th UN Climate Conference (COP29) in Baku, Belgium came 19th, despite its respectable position in terms of emissions - 8th for current emissions and 10th for projected emissions.
Belgium performs significantly worse on governance-related indicators, particularly with regard to climate neutrality and its contribution to multilateral transparency, according to the authors of the survey. If Belgium corrects these weaknesses, it could significantly improve its ranking over the next few years, they say.
Austria is in first place, thanks in particular to its commitment to achieving climate neutrality 10 years before most other developed countries.
The Central European country is ahead of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Japan. France is 9th and Italy 21st, while Canada and the United States occupy the penultimate (22nd) and last (23rd) places.
The authors of the ranking say they intend to include more countries in their analysis in future.
