Global Green Economy Index, 2018

While mainstream media outlets globally may be focused on the relationship between climate change and extreme weather, crop performance, and infrastructure resilience, economists and business strategists alike are turning toward greener measures and outlooks of economic performance. The 2018 Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) by Dual Citizen LLC is one of several initiatives—others include the Green Growth Knowledge Platform and the UN Partnership for Action on Green Economy—working to provide policy guidance, promote good practices, and generate and promote the data necessary to inform decisions on policies and investments necessary for accelerating the green transition. 

• The GGEI 2018 measured the green economic performance of 130 countries across four dimensions: leadership and climate change, efficiency sectors, markets and investment, and the environment.
• In today’s Viz of the Day, we showcase the 2018 GGEI overall results—spoiler alert, Sweden is top ranked, again—with a special data feature on the performance of five the world’s largest economies on a specific dimension of the index: Markets & Investment. 

Markets & Investment Highlights

The GGEI 2018 results below show that a decade post the first global green economy initiative from the UN Environmental Program, even the world’s largest economies have made uneven progress toward the investments and policies required to support a green economy transition. 

• Among five of the world's largest economies, Germany has the strongest performance in the overall index (ranked 6th), followed by Japan (19th), China (28th), the United States (31st), and India (36th).
• Turning to Markets & Investment, Japan notably outranked other large economies according to GGEI’s corporate sustainability measure. This calculation covers the policies of large market cap companies in each country in terms of (i) disclosing climate change data to leading certification authorities; (ii) the rating of companies by those authorities; and (iii) commitment to science based targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Unsurprising to those who follow the renewable energy sector, China outperformed in net 5-year installed renewable capacity. You can explore this topic further in our recent viz exploring renewable power installation globally and the phenomenon of negative energy prices in Europe.