This Tuesday, at the climate summit held in the Brazilian city of Belém, COP30, the Climate Change Performance Index was presented, a classification that shows the involvement of world governments in the fight against warming. This relationship has been ongoing for 21 years, and one of the clearest headlines in this 2025 edition is the collapse of the United States at the hands of Donald Trump. This country appears to be in the group of four countries that do the least against climate change among those analyzed. The last place is occupied by Saudi Arabia, a petrostate that for years has been applying all kinds of tactics to lower the ambition of climate leaders. Followed, in order, by Iran, the United States and Russia.
The report analyzes the policies of 63 countries around the world, responsible for 90% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is led by the organizations Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and CAN International and more than 450 climate and energy experts from NGOs, analyst groups and scientific institutions participate in its preparation. Four categories are taken into consideration to rank the nations: the reduction of greenhouse gases (which has the greatest weight in the final score), the progress of renewable energy, the use of energy and climate policies.
As they have done since the first edition, they leave the top three positions vacant, a sign that no country is sufficiently ambitious in its measures. The most valued one, which occupies fourth place, is once again Denmark, thanks to its commitment to renewables. Followed by the United Kingdom, Morocco and Chile. Spain rises five positions in this year’s edition, reaching 14th, and enters the group of states with a “high” performance.
“Spain continues its path of substantial emissions reductions with EU legislation integrated into national action plans,” the report notes. “Green fiscal policies and the progressive incorporation of climate criteria into public procurement are vital in the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels,” the study adds. Spain, led by Vice President Sara Aagesen, also Minister of Ecological Transition, aims to strengthen ambition in this climate summit, which is held at a very complicated time for multilateralism in general and for the fight against warming in particular.
One of the main culprits for this complicated situation is the United States and the new government led by Donald Trump after the elections a year ago. This town stands out in the lower part of the classification presented this Tuesday and is among the “very poor” performing nations. “The United States receives very low scores on all fronts, in greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, climate policy and energy use,” the report explains.
“With Donald Trump’s second presidency there has been a large-scale setback in climate policies at the national and international level,” add the experts who underline the main reason why the president “denies man-made climate change”.
Within its borders, “key policies supporting renewable energy storage and greenhouse gas emissions reductions have been repealed alongside the promotion of fossil fuel expansion,” they add.
At the international level, Trump not only pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, which will materialize in January, and decided not to send negotiators to COP30, but he showed a threatening attitude towards countries that wanted to continue climate measures. It happened in October, when the White House threatened governments that supported a new tax on emissions from international shipping with sanctions and tariffs.
The fact that there is no representation from the United States government at the summit does not mean that some leaders and representatives of this country are not present in Belém. One of them was Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who last Saturday, during an event in the Spanish pavilion, argued that the Trump government “is corrupted” by the “fossil fuel industry.” In his opinion, the Republican administration “is carrying out an agenda of the fossil fuel industry that has been bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry,” he said in statements collected by the Efe agency.
Another of the American officials who participated in the Belém conference was the governor of California, also a Democrat, Gavin Newsom. “Trump is temporary, he is reckless, he is chaotic,” said this politician, who is running as a possible Democratic candidate in the next presidential elections in the United States.
“People have to stand up, we have to stand up to a bully,” Newsom added in reference to the attitude shown in many international forums where environmental policies are discussed. And, in a sense, this Bethlehem summit will decide whether the majority of countries will resist Trump and continue to advance the climate fight within the United Nations.
