Two of the biggest challenges humanity faces are strongly intertwined: corruption and the climate crisis.
While billions of people around the world face the daily consequences of climate change, resources for adaptation and mitigation remain woefully inadequate. Corruption intensifies these challenges, posing additional threats to vulnerable communities.
This article by Transparency International unpacks the results of its newly-released Corruption Perceptions Index 2024.
A lack of adequate transparency and accountability mechanisms increases the risk that climate funds may be misused or embezzled. What is more, climate corruption can also take the form of undue influence on decision-makers by polluting industries, and politicians having conflicts of interest because they own shares in oil and gas companies or work for them.
These factors have obstructed adoption of the ambitious policies and measures needed to address climate change, favouring the interests of narrow groups over the common good. The corruption crisis is a huge obstacle to solving the climate crisis.
As corruption grows in scale and complexity, over two thirds of countries now score below the mid-point on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Corruption affects billions of people worldwide, destroying lives, undermining human rights and exacerbating global crises. It blocks real action where it’s needed most – and with autocrats on the rise and democracy weakening, the fight against it has never been more urgent.
How do countries measure up on corruption in the public sector?
You can see the full Corruption Perceptions Index 2024 here.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories according to the levels of public-sector corruption perceived by experts and businesspeople. It relies on 13 independent data sources and uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
The index highlights the stark contrast between nations with strong, independent institutions and free, fair elections, and those with repressive authoritarian regimes. Full democracies have a CPI average of 73, while flawed democracies average 47 and non-democratic regimes just 33. This highlights that although some non-democratic countries might be perceived as managing certain forms of corruption, the broader picture shows that democracy and strong institutions are crucial for combatting corruption fully and effectively.
The CPI uses a scale of 0 to 100. The global average score is 43, with two-thirds of countries scoring less the 50.
Top and bottom performers
For the seventh year in a row, Denmark heads the ranking, with a score of 90. Finland and Singapore take the second and third spots, with scores of 88 and 84, respectively. Scoring 83, New Zealand is outside the top three positions for the first time since 2012, but remains in the top 10, together with Luxembourg (CPI score: 81), Norway (81), Switzerland (81), Sweden (80), the Netherlands (78), Australia (77), Iceland (77) and Ireland (77).
Meanwhile, countries experiencing conflict or with highly restricted freedoms and weak democratic institutions occupy the bottom of the index. South Sudan (8), Somalia (9) and Venezuela (10) take the last three spots. Syria (12), Equatorial Guinea (13), Eritrea (13), Libya (13), Yemen (13), Nicaragua (14), Sudan (15) and North Korea (15) complete the list of lowest scorers.
Score changes from 2012 to 2024
Since 2012, 32 countries have significantly improved their scores on the index and are now seen as having less corruption. Over the same period, 47 countries made significant losses. These decliners include some high-scoring democracies, like the United States (65) and New Zealand (83), as well as autocratic states like Russia (22) and Eswatini (27). The countries that saw improvements include Moldova (43), Kuwait (46) and Uruguay (76).
Corruption and the climate crisis
The climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, driven by a web of interconnected factors. Among them lies a crucial but often overlooked issue: corruption, which undermines climate action by misdirecting resources, enabling harmful practices and stifling progress. The CPI shows that corruption is a global problem, affecting every country and obstructing efforts to properly confront climate change.
Corruption contributes to the climate crisis in several ways. One is through embezzlement and misuse of climate funds. Corruption threatens the funding allocated to mitigate and adapt to the effects of global heating. While the amount currently invested in mitigation and adaptation measures is just a fraction of what the United Nations (UN) estimates is needed to face this challenge, corruption – aided by a lack of transparency – can undermine the effectiveness of these funds by diverting them from their intended purpose.
Very often, countries that need this money the most also tend to struggle to control corruption. These include India (38), Colombia (39) and Egypt (30). By mainstreaming transparency and anti-corruption provisions into the management frameworks for such funds, stakeholders can help maximise their impact.
“It is imperative that urgent action is taken to root out corruption so that meaningful climate action is not undermined by undue influence, theft and misuse of funds,” says Maíra Martini, CEO of Transparency International. “Governments and multilateral organisations must integrate anti-corruption measures into climate efforts in order to safeguard climate finance and reestablish trust in climate initiatives. This will strengthen the resilience and impact of climate action.”
Safeguarding climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives from corruption can make them more effective and beneficial for the most vulnerable groups. Marginalised people usually have fewer options for adapting to extreme weather and pollution, leaving them most in need of government support.
However, as corruption diverts much-needed funds into private pockets, these groups often remain particularly exposed to the effects of climate change caused by inadequate infrastructure, poor disaster preparedness and other forms of neglect.
In Russia (22), an audit found strong indications that millions of dollars were misappropriated from a project funded by the Global Environment Facility and managed by the UN Development Programme, which aimed to reduce emissions by strengthening energy efficiency standards. The project – which ran from 2010 to 2017 – reportedly failed to meet any of its emissions reduction targets.
Denmark (90), the highest-ranking country on the CPI, is also seen as one of the most prepared for tackling the effects of climate change. Recognising the importance of addressing climate risks, the country adopted its first national adaptation strategy in 2008. This was followed by a national action plan in 2012, which highlights the vital role of local actors – including municipalities, businesses and individuals – in driving adaptation efforts. Today, 95 of Denmark’s 98 municipalities have climate action plans aligned with the Paris Agreement. Climate policymaking, however, is subject to the same structural challenges as other high-profile policy areas, including the risks of lobbying influence and a lack of transparency in the decision-making process.
Libya (13) faces acute vulnerabilities to climate change, including extreme heat, dwindling rainfall, rising sea levels and prolonged droughts. These challenges are compounded by widespread corruption and the absence of a cohesive adaptation strategy, deepening the country’s instability. In 2023, Storm Daniel caused catastrophic flooding, killing over 11,000 people, according to Libyan authorities. The disaster, which swept away entire neighbourhoods, was partly attributed to poorly maintained infrastructure, including two dams that collapsed due to corruption and neglect.
Climate policy-making is being captured
Another side of climate corruption is undue influence on climate policies and decision-making. By undermining the development and enforcement of critical climate and environmental policies, corruption obstructs efforts to implement stringent regulations, reduce emissions and promote clean energy initiatives.
Undue influence on climate policy occurs in countries with both high and low levels of corruption. However, it is in wealthy, developed countries that this interference undermines global progress the most. These nations hold the greatest responsibility to lead on ambitious climate goals, reduce emissions at scale and build resilience worldwide. When undue influence distorts their policies, it delays critical actions, weakens international cooperation and hampers the global fight against the climate crisis.
In addition to the United States and New Zealand, Canada (75) is another decliner on the CPI that has traditionally driven climate action around the world, highlighting a worrying trend for global climate leaders.
South Africa (41) too shows a worrying trend, dropping by three points since 2019. In 2025, the country will host the G20 Leaders’ Summit, giving it a vital opportunity to advocate for increased climate finance commitments from G20 countries that do not conflate debt repayments, private financing and loans as a substitute for direct mechanisms to mitigate the climate crisis. South Africa must strengthen oversight mechanisms to ensure that domestic corruption does not interfere with such crucial international processes, as has happened at past summits.
In the United States (65), a major energy company orchestrated a $60-million bribery scheme to unduly influence public policy in its favour and slow a transition to renewable energy. Prosecutors argue that the company funnelled money to a politician – who maintains his innocence – and his associates, so they would push through a billion-dollar bailout of two nuclear power plants. Reportedly, this helped the company to compete with newer, cheaper forms of energy and gain a competitive advantage.
Weak environmental protection
Corruption also severely undermines the enforcement of environmental laws and policies, by weakening regulatory oversight. Bribery and kickbacks can lead public officials, law enforcement, customs agents, harbour authorities, licensing bodies and regulators to either overlook environmental violations or actively benefit from them.
Fighting corruption is therefore essential to ensuring that existing environmental regulations are enforced, preventing harmful practices and unsustainable resource exploitation. It is also vital in the fight against environmental crime – now the fourth-largest form of organised crime, generating annual profits for criminal networks estimated at between $82-billion and $238-billion.
Vietnam (40) illustrates how systemic corruption, extending from lower level to high-ranking public officials, drives environmental destruction and forest degradation. Bribes and kickbacks to senior Vietnamese officials, alongside customs and border personnel, have facilitated the smuggling of illegally harvested Cambodian timber into Vietnam, and its laundering into the legal market.
Threats to activists
Corruption makes it harder for people to speak out against climate change. Land and environmental defenders – who are frequently at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis – are particularly exposed to violence, intimidation and even murder in countries where corruption levels are high. In the last five years, more than 1,000 environmental defenders have been killed, almost all of them in countries with CPI scores below 50. For example, many activists were killed in Brazil (34), the Philippines (33) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (20).
short, we cannot solve the climate crisis unless we step up the fight against corruption – and increasingly frequent and severe environmental degradation, natural disasters and climate-related instability show we must act now.
How to progress toward a sustainable world
To effectively combat the climate crisis, we must place corruption at the centre of the global debate. Governments, international organisations and businesses must prioritise the integration of robust anti-corruption measures into climate finance, policies and projects.
Transparency and accountability are essential to ensuring resources are protected, policies deliver on their objectives, and projects reach the communities that need them most. Addressing corruption head-on will rebuild societies’ trust in climate initiatives and drive progress toward a sustainable world.
- Put integrity at the centre of climate efforts. This is key to achieving real impact. Anti-corruption measures can enhance countries’ ability to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. As the climate field is still developing, there is a unique chance to establish safeguards against theft, policy capture and other abuse. Strong collaboration between climate and anti-corruption actors is essential, with the UN Convention against Corruption offering a critical framework to support this work.
- Shield climate policymaking processes from undue influence at national, regional and international levels. This will lead to stronger climate action. Reaching the highest levels of transparency and inclusivity in climate policies and finance allocation would unlock their full potential, while also reestablishing trust in climate initiatives. Creating mechanisms to detect and manage conflicts of interest – including through lobbying registers and declarations of interests – is essential to raise ambition in key climate fora such as the UN Framework Convention against Climate Change.
- Enhance investigations, sanctions and protections to combat corruption. This will deter environmental crimes and reduce impunity. Access to justice can be improved through strengthening enforcement and oversight bodies – including anti-corruption bodies. Local communities need access to grievance mechanisms, while those who speak out – climate, land and environmental defenders, and whistleblowers – must be protected from all forms of retaliation.
- Strengthen citizen engagement in climate investments. This will enable those affected by the climate crisis to help tailor the solutions. Information on climate finance, projects and contracts needs to be open, accessible and disseminated in a timely way, in line with the principles of obtaining free, prior and informed consent from people affected by such initiatives. Inclusive accountability frameworks ensure communities are engaged throughout initiatives like the Just Energy Transition Partnerships between countries, including via oversight. This produces results that better address their needs.