2024 Corruption Perceptions Index: Corruption is playing a devastating role in the climate crisis

Corruption threatens life-saving climate funds around the world – better safeguarding is vital to protect billions of vulnerable people

Berlin, 11 February 2025 - Global corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering, according to the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International. The report has exposed serious corruption levels across the globe, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50 out of 100. The global average on the index has remained unchanged at 43, highlighting the need for urgent action against corruption and warning of a critical global obstacle to implementing successful climate action.

Against a backdrop of record-breaking global warming and extreme weather events, erosion of democracy and a decline in global climate leadership, the world has its back against the ropes in its fight against the climate crisis. Corruption is making that fight much harder, and the international community must address the link between corruption and the climate crisis.

The latest data shows that many of the countries most heavily involved in international climate action - including climate-vulnerable nations and hosts of international summits such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) - have low and/or declining CPI scores. Corruption is obstructing effective climate action by hindering the adoption of ambitious policies. A recent Transparency International report highlighted the significant influence of oil and gas lobbyists at events like COP, an activity that also affects political centres around the world.

François Valérian, Chair of Transparency International said:

"Corruption is an evolving global threat that does far more than undermine development – it is a key cause of declining democracy, instability and human rights violations. The international community and every nation must make tackling corruption a top and long-term priority. This is crucial to pushing back against authoritarianism and securing a peaceful, free and sustainable world. The dangerous trends revealed in this year's Corruption Perceptions Index highlight the need to follow through with concrete action now to address global corruption."

Maíra Martini, CEO of Transparency International said:

"We must urgently root out corruption before it fully derails meaningful climate action. Governments and multilateral organisations must embed anti-corruption measures into climate efforts to safeguard finance, rebuild trust and maximise impact. Today, corrupt forces not only shape but often dictate policies and dismantle checks and balances – silencing journalists, activists and anyone fighting for equality and sustainability. True climate resilience demands tackling these threats directly and decisively. Vulnerable people around the world desperately need this action."

Mads Christensen, Executive Director Greenpeace International said:

"This year's analysis showed again how fossil fuel corruption undermines climate efforts, including in the United States. Around the world, communities are demanding climate action from their governments. But the people's voices are time and again countered by the corrupting power of the oil and gas companies profiting from environmental devastation, who use their billions to attempt to silence critics and activists, to buy power, and to dismantle the protections that safeguard our families and our planet. Greenpeace organisations and our allies are facing such a threat from pipeline giant Energy Transfer, which is trying to wipe us off the map in the US with a massive, specious lawsuit. It's up to all of us who care about the future to stand up to these corporate bullies, no matter the cost."

CORRUPTION AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

The CPI highlights the billions of dollars of climate funds that are at risk of being stolen or misused.

  • Most countries that are highly vulnerable to climate change score below 50 on the CPI. Huge numbers of people are at needless risk because corruption is impairing climate projects meant to protect them. This highlights the critical need for robust transparency and accountability measures to ensure the effective use of these funds.
  • Recent Transparency International research shows how corruption can undermine a "just transition" to net zero, highlighting specific examples in South Africa (41), Vietnam (40) and Indonesia (37) where insufficient safeguards have created opportunities for unscrupulous actors.
  • In South Africa (41) around a billion rand (more than US$56 million) is stolen each month from Eskom, the state-owned energy provider, according to its former chief executive.
  • Countries suffering the worst effects of the climate crisis have the lowest scores, including South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), and Venezuela (10). In Somalia, climate change has wreaked havoc on the country's agricultural economy and worsened its 30 year-long conflict.

The CPI report has also revealed the extent to which key players in climate diplomacy are struggling with corruption, which its authors argue is undermining the effectiveness of multilateralism, such as the COP negotiations.

  • Azerbaijan, host of COP29, at which at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access, scored just 22.
  • COP30 hosts Brazil will be responsible for securing the $1.3 trillion target of climate financing by 2035. However, in this year's CPI it received an all-time low score of 34.
  • South Africa (41), host of the G20 Leaders' Summit, has dropped by three points since 2019.
  • Some host countries with below-average CPI scores have also contributed to the opacity of these conferences by limiting transparency and the participation of civil society. This is a serious obstacle in developing effective climate policy and needs to be addressed moving towards COP30 in Brazil and the G20 Leaders' Summit in South Africa.
  • Undue influence to obstruct climate policy can happen in countries with both high and low corruption levels. However, it is in wealthy, developed countries that this interference has the most serious impact because it is undermining their work to agree on ambitious goals, reduce emissions and build resilience globally. Three members of the Umbrella group have significantly declining scores – the USA (65), Canada (75) and New Zealand (83).

The CPI has also highlighted the human cost of climate corruption.

  • Land and environmental defenders are frequently at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis, but their efforts expose them to intimidation, violence and even murder. This is most common in countries with serious corruption problems – almost all 1,013 murders of environmental defenders since 2019 took place in countries with CPI scores below 50.

GLOBAL CORRUPTION HIGHLIGHTS

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

  • Almost 6.8 billion people live in countries with CPI scores under 50. This is equivalent to 85% of the world population of 8 billion.
  • For the seventh year in a row, Denmark obtains the highest score on the index (90) and is closely followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84).
  • Countries with the lowest scores are mostly in fragile and conflict-affected countries like South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), Venezuela (10), Syria (12), Libya (13), Eritrea (13), Yemen (13) and Equatorial Guinea (13).
  • Over a quarter of the countries in the sample (47) got their lowest score yet on the index, including Austria (67), Bangladesh (23), Brazil (34), Cuba (41), France (67), Germany (75), Haiti (16), Hungary (41), Iran (23), Mexico (26), Russia (22), South Sudan (8), Switzerland (81), the United States (65) and Venezuela (10).

Over the past 5 years, 7 countries have significantly improved their scores in the index:

  • These include Côte d'Ivoire (45), the Dominican Republic (36), Kosovo (44), Kuwait (46), the Maldives (38), Moldova (43) and Zambia (39).

Over the past 5 years, 13 countries saw their scores significantly decline in the index:

  • The significant decliners are Austria (67), Belarus (33), Belgium (69), El Salvador (30), France (67), Kyrgyzstan (25), Lebanon (22), Myanmar (16), Nicaragua (14), Russia (22), Sri Lanka (32), the United Kingdom (71), and Venezuela (10).

CPI 2024 Results of Armenia and other countries

Armenia's 2024 score remained unchanged compared to previous year and is equal to 47 on a scale from 0 (absolutely corrupt) to 100 (absolutely clean). In the 2024 CPI ranking table (see on the https://www.transparency.org/en/ ), which includes 180 countries, Armenia is sharing 63-64-th places with Croatia (in 2023, Armenia was on the 62nd place with the same 47 points).

Armenia's 2024 CPI score (47) is the arithmetic mean of the scores from six sources used in its assessment. These sources are:

  • Bertelsmann Foundation's 2024 Transformation Index (51 points, 49 in 2023)
  • Freedom House's Nations in Transit 2024 Report – Corruption subindex (44 points, unchanged from 2023)
  • Global Insight Country Risk Rating 2024 (46 points, 47 in 2023)
  • Political Risk Services International Country Risk Guide 2024 (33 points, 32 in 2023)
  • Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project 2024 Publication (50 points, 55 in 2023)
  • World Economic Forum’s Annual Executive Opinion Survey 2024 (56 points, 54 in 2023).

Figure 1 shows Armenia's CPI scores from 2012 to 2024.

According to the regional division of Transparency International, Armenia is included in the Eastern Europe-Central Asia region. Figure 2 shows the Eastern Europe - Central Asia region in 2024. The CPI ranking table includes the calculated scores of all sources for all its countries.

As in the previous four years, Armenia's CPI score in 2024 is higher, than the world average CPI score, which, like in last year, is equal to 43. It also surpasses the 2024 CPI scores of neighboring countries (except for Georgia) and other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan).

Among Armenia's neighbors Turkey (34) shares 107th-113th place, Iran (23) ranks 151st-153rd, and Azerbaijan (22) ranks 154th-157th. Among EAEU countries, Kazakhstan (40) holds 88th-91st place, Belarus (33) ranks 114th-120th, Kyrgyzstan (25) is in 146th-148th place, and Russia (22) shares 154th-157th place.

As is seen from the Figure, Armenia ranks second among the countries in the region, following Georgia (53), which holds 53rd-55th place․

Figure 3. presents 2024 CPI scores for Council of Europe Countries, including Armenia.

As seen in the Figure, Armenia is not even in the middle rankings among Council of Europe countries. This means that Armenia still has a long way to go to achieve real progress in the fight against corruption.

ABOUT THE CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX

Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index scores 180 countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption, using data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies, think tanks and others. The scores reflect the views of experts and business people.

The process for calculating the CPI is regularly reviewed to make sure it is as robust and coherent as possible, most recently by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 2017. All the CPI scores since 2012 are comparable from one year to the next. For more information, see this article: The ABCs of the CPI: How the Corruption Perceptions Index is calculated.