Ecological world

                                                 Major economies outside  Japan  Japan (50th) continues to be affected by the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accident and in particular by the high costs of energy imports and increased CO2 emissions. Japan also demonstrates the challenges that nations can face from sudden supply disruption and the need for greater diversification in the power supply. The country’s CO2 emissions from electricity production have increased by 25% to 562 gCO2/kWh since 2008, while the share of alternatives and nuclear energy dropped from 17% in 2008 to 5% last year. Despite the introduction of aggressive feed-in tariffs for renewable energy in July 2012 (15), the contribution of renewable energy is still too limited to reverse this trend. Japan’s government is now seeking to restart some nuclear reactors t...

                   Major economies outside The  United Kingdom Similarly, the United Kingdom (16th) has ambitious policies to reduce its carbon footprint. The country had 12.4 GW of wind capacity at the end of 2014 (14), increasing the shares of alternative and nuclear energy in its mix from 13% in 2009 to 15% in 2013. The sub-indexes related to environmental sustainability and energy access and security both benefitted from this trend. The UK Green Investment Ban k, created and owned by the UK government, has been an important force backing green projects on commercial terms and mobilizing other private-sector capital in the country’s economy.

                          Major economies outside The Australia Australia (53rd) rose eight places in the overall ranking compared to the 2009 benchmark thanks to strong performance on the economic growth and development sub-index. However, Australia’s relatively poor performance on environmental sustainability has heavily penalized its overall score, with the country producing some of the highest CO2 emissions from electricity production (ranked 120 out of 126 countries), with almost no progress over the last seven years. In fact, Australia took a step backward in 2014 when it became the first developed nation to repeal carbon laws that put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast to these resource-rich nations, other major economies depend heavily on energy imports . However, their weak performance on the EAPI due to imports is often balanced by energy policies that promote environmental sustainabil...

The United States (48th) continues to perform very well on the energy access and security sub-index, supported by the growth of unconventional oil and gas production. Energy imports, expressed as the share of energy use, dropped from 25% in 2008 to 15% in 2013. In parallel, fuel prices at the pump dropped by 27% for gasoline and 39% for diesel. Amid the drop in crude oil prices, fuel subsidies continue to distort fuel prices at the pump. Figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that fossil-fuel subsidies amount to $2,180 for every American . Although US President Barack Obama backed their phasing-out, federal fossil-fuel subsidies have, in fact, risen . Major economies outside the top 10  Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2016

In line with previous editions of the index, the performance of the 12 largest economies by 2014 GDP in the EAPI 2016, accounting for nearly 70% of world gross domestic product (GDP), is still visibly lagging across the EAPI energy triangle, a consequence of the relative scale and complexity of their energy sectors. Out of the 12 nations, only France (4th) sits among the top 10 performers on the index. The remaining 11 largest economies and their respective scores on the EAPI are: United States (48th), China (94th), Japan (50th), Germany (24th), United Kingdom (16th), Brazil (25th), Italy (22nd), India (90th), Russian Federation (52nd), Canada (30th) and Australia (53rd). Major resource-rich economies may be held back by their focus on domestic supplies and fuel subsidies which, based on the EAPI, often comes at the expense of performance on environmental sustainability. Ease of access combined with cheap supplies relieves the pressure for countries to change, and the recent cl...