Canada worst, Germany best on climate change: report

Canada ranks last among the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations for tackling climate change while Germany is top, the green group WWF and the German insurance giant Allianz reported on Wednesday.

Their assessment, issued ahead of the annual G8 summit, blasts Canada for greenhouse-gas emissions that are surging "far above" its obligations under under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.

"(Canada's) per capita emissions are among the highest in the world," they said.

"(Its) mid- to long-term greenhouse targets are inadequate. A plan to curb emissions was developed last year but has not been implemented. The Kyoto target will stay completely out of reach."

The United States, which placed last in the 2008 rankings, moves up a notch, thanks to the pro-climate policies launched by President Barack Obama.

Russia, too, is criticised for a steady increase in carbon pollution since 1999 and the lack of policies to reverse the trend.

Japan and Italy, ranked fifth and fourth respectively, have relatively low emissions per capita.

But both are faulted for failing to set down programmes that will help to peg global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees) Fahrenheit above pre-industrial times, a widely-accepted goal.

Germany heads the G8 list, narrowly followed by Britain and then France.

Even so, these three countries are still two-thirds short of what they could achieve, the report said.

The G8 summit takes place in L'Aquila, Italy, from July 8-10.

UN countries, under the 192-party Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aim to forge a new agreement in Copenhagen in December that will set targets for emissions curbs and channel help to poor countries beyond 2012.

Canada agreed under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce CO2 emissions to 6.0 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, its emissions were 26.2 percent higher than in 1990.