In an assessment report of what 61 countries are doing to counter climate change released during the COP17 in Durban, South Africa, the only two Arab states featured seemed to have slipped since last year.

The report, Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), prepared by Germanwatch, CAN-Europe, and IndyACT, looks at emission levels, emission trends and climate policies of the countries reviewed.

Egypt’s overall ranking this year is 21, having slipped four places from a ranking of 17 last year. While emissions were increasing, Egypt’s commitment to both national and international climate policies increased its ranking considerably. Lama El-Hatow, the climate change researcher who gathered the data from Egypt, suggests its ranking slipped this year due to the revolution which took place in early 2011 which might have disrupted or put on hold several domestic programmes that were supposed to address issues related to the country’s climate policy.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, received the worst ranking, taking the 61st place in the list. The report criticizes the country’s “extremely high emissions levels and trends as well as lack of positive policy approaches” for the low scoring. It stresses that the country, which is one of the richest in the world, can play a leading positive role worldwide by producing solar and hydrogen-based energy rather than relying on fossil fuels.

The lowest ranking three countries were Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kazakhstan. The highest ranking were Sweden, the United Kingdom and Germany – even though the first three places in the rankings were left empty because, according to the report, no country has done enough effort to curb carbon dioxide emissions to warrant these rankings.