Living in a Country that Thinks Green

These five countries are making positive global contributions to the planet and climate, according to the Good Country Index.

The latest climate reports look grim: recent research published in Science journal indicates that oceans are warming 40% faster than previously thought, while the UN panel of climate-change scientists released a landmark report in October 2018 warning that rising temperatures may cause major flooding, droughts, food shortages and wildfires by 2040 unless drastic action is taken.

While the global community still has a long way to go in addressing the reported climate changes, certain countries have emerged as making positive global contributions to the planet, according to the Good Country Index, which aims to measure the impact a single country has on the wider world, such as its ecological footprint relative to the size of the economy and the percentage of renewable energy used.

“In our age of advanced globalisation and massive interdependence, everything sooner or later, has an impact on the whole system,” said Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor who founded the index. “I wanted to create the first index that measured the external impact of each country on the whole of humanity, the whole planet, outside its own borders.”

To find out why these five countries are that much greener than their neighbours, we spoke to residents and asked what it’s like to live in a place that’s doing more to save the planet.

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