Description

Greenhouse Gas Management Activities Parameter IV takes into account carbon offset project activity, level of policy support for carbon emissions reduction, and local corporate awareness of carbon issues through a total of 13 indicators.

This parameter encompassed a wide range of scores as some nations have been active in various aspects of contemplating their CO2 footprints through the establishment of registries or other activities or by actually rolling out national or local policies with an eye toward explicitly addressing the issue. Many nations are hosting some type of CO2 reduction projects registered internationally.

The top five finishers tended to be nations that to date have been more active in getting projects registered internationally, but most have also been active in some way in developing actual CO2 reduction policies. Chile, which topped the list for Parameter II, has now approved South America’s first carbon tax. China, 3rd on the parameter despite being the world’s largest CO2 emitter, has now launched several local pilot cap-and-trade schemes. Mexico has stated plans to roll out a carbon price in 2014.

At the other end of the spectrum, quite a few nations have done very little to date on these issues. Slightly less than half of nations surveyed scored below a 1.0 on this Parameter. In a number of cases, this was unsurprising given the level of development of many of these countries. In fact, the large majority of those in the bottom half of the table were the least advanced countries.