The Global Climate Legislation Database

Country rank as emitter is based on total emissions including LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry). Source: World Resources Institute, CAIT 2.0, 2011 data.

The greenhouse gas emissions data is taken from the most recent official national submission to the UNFCCC. This means that the figures are not directly comparable from country to country as the submissions are from different years. Additionally, although some countries have published updated figures, they are only taken into account if they have been officially submitted to the UNFCCC.

The 'latest reporting year' mentioned refers to the date of the emissions data, and not to the date of the communication.

National GHG inventory data is submitted to the UNFCCC in the form of GHG inventory submissions for Annex I countries, and as part of National Communications for non-Annex I countries.

Based on World Bank classification for developing countries (countries with low and middle- income) and developed countries (countries with high income).

Based on total emissions including LULUCF. Source: World Resources Institute, CAIT 2.0, 2011 data.

Framework legislation has been defined as a law, or regulation with equivalent status, which serves as a comprehensive, unifying basis for climate change policy, which addresses multiple aspects or areas of climate change mitigation or adaptation (or both) in a holistic, overarching manner. This definition builds on the term ‘flagship legislation’, used in the 4th edition of the GLOBE Climate Legislation Study (Nachmany et al., 2014).

Full list of framework laws and policies

Legislative: acts that were passed by a parliament or equivalent legislative authority;

Executive: instruments that were passed or decreed by the government, president or equivalent executive authority (e.g. presidential decrees, executive orders, government policies or plans).

The study notes laws and policies for: carbon pricing, energy demand, promotion of low carbon energy (including renewables), transportation, and LULUCF

The cut-off date of the 2015 Climate Legislation study is 1st January 2015. Significant legislative efforts after the cut-off date are referenced in the covering text of country chapters.

The Vulnerability Score (part of the ND-GAIN Index Score) measures a country's exposure, sensitivity and ability to adapt to the negative impact of climate change. It considers vulnerability in six life-supporting sectors – food, water, health, ecosystem service, human habitat and infrastructure. The higher the rank, the less vulnerable the country is.

Source: http://index.gain.org/ranking/vulnerability

You can download your search results as a .zip archive. This contains the results as CSV, and a information about them as JSON, formatted according to http://dataprotocols.org/tabular-data-package/

The following fields are included: Country, Name, Year Passed, Executive/Legislative, Framework and Categories.