Climatescope 2017

Climatescope is a detailed, country-by-country quantitative assessment of clean energy market conditions and opportunities in 71 nations in South America, Europe, Africa, the Mideast, and Asia. Based on 43 data indicators and 179 sub-indicators, Bloomberg New Energy Finance determines scores for each nation in the survey on a 0-5 basis. All countries are then ranked.

Some key finding include: Key country-score findings:

• For the first time since Climatescope was launched four years ago, the average country score fell year-on-year. Nations sampled collectively scored 1.35 in last year's survey (out of 5). That average fell to 1.19 this year, though the figure was skewed somewhat with the addition to the survey of 13 new nations from Central Asia and Europe. All but two of the 13 new countries are former states of the Soviet Union with aging energy infrastructure and little renewables activity to date. 
• Comparing the same 58 nations sampled last year with those from this year still produced a drop in the average score, to 1.25. Just 12 countries from this smaller group saw their scores rise year-on-year while 44 saw declines (two were unchanged). 
• As in years past, no country managed a score higher than a 2.5. Even among the bestperforming countries, scores declined. Seven of the top 10 ranked nations scored lower this year than in the prior survey. At the other end of the spectrum, the lowest single score in the survey fell from 0.3 in the last survey to 0.2 this year. A total of just four countries scored over 2.0 this year, down from 10 nations the year prior. 
• China topped the survey again with a score of 2.5, almost the same as last year. The country remains the world's single largest market for clean energy development, but saw new asset (project) investment fall by $36.6 billion year-on-year. As 2015 was the end of the 13th Fiveyear plan, project developers slowed new investment in 2016 as they awaited changes to clean energy policies, including significant reductions in feed-in tariffs, adjustments to landuse and other mechanisms. Meanwhile, China's current fleet of wind and solar projects faces serious curtailment issues.
• The top 10 highest scoring nations this year consist of three from Asia (China, India, and Vietnam), four from the Latin America/Caribbean region (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay), two from Africa (South Africa and Kenya), and one from the Middle East (Jordan).