- EU Member States must intensify their efforts by a factor of three:
Summing up all results across all countries and sectors, only one third of the necessary action has currently been undertaken to put countries on a path towards a low carbon economy. - “Best of each class” is two-thirds of the way:
A country that would follow the example of the respective highest-scoring country in each policy area, per sector, would achieve 2/3 of the required effort, which is substantially better than the average. This means that policy options are available, but not implemented across the board. - Countries rated highest are not leaders:
Countries rated best currently score only half of what is needed. It would therefore not be appropriate to call them leaders, as they still need to double their policy efforts to get on track to a low carbon economy. - Support for renewable energy is most widely implemented.
Countries have developed and implemented comprehensive strategies to support renewable energy and have gained experience with the removal of barriers. Renewable energy policies are best developed for electricity production, however these are moderate for buildings and transport and particularly weak for industry. - Energy efficiency is less well covered and the actions are far less comprehensive.
- EU member states can learn significantly from each other in some areas, such as the UK and Ireland’s General Climate Policy where an integrated, long-term, legally binding climate strategy exists. Whilst in other areas such as agriculture good examples are missing, since no country is at the forefront of a low carbon economy for agriculture.