Cape Verde is the best-placed CPLP country and Equatorial Guinea has the worst ranking in the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by the non-governmental organization Transparency International.
According to the report - in which 180 countries were evaluated and subsequently classified between 0 (perceived as very corrupt) and 100 points (very transparent) -, Cape Verde, with 62 points, is the nation with the best classification in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), followed by Portugal, with 57 points.
In turn, the other nations had negative classifications: São Tomé and Príncipe (45), Timor-Leste (44), Brazil (34), Angola (32), Mozambique (25), Guinea-Bissau (21) and Equatorial Guinea (13).
Overall, "more than two-thirds of the countries [analyzed] scored below 50 out of 100," Transparency International highlighted in a statement.
“Full democracies have an average CPI of 73, while flawed democracies have an average of 47 and non-democratic regimes only 33,” he explained, noting that the global average of the index remained unchanged this year, at 43.
Thus, countries in conflict or with highly restricted freedoms and weak democratic institutions occupy the last places in the index.
South Sudan (8), Somalia (9) and Venezuela (10) occupy the last three seats. Syria (12), Equatorial Guinea (13), Eritrea (13), Libya (13), Yemen (13), Nicaragua (14), Sudan (15) and North Korea (15) complete the list of worst-ranked countries, it listed.
According to the research, in North Africa and the Middle East corruption is linked to authoritarianism, despite calls for reforms, and in Sub-Saharan Africa anti-corruption measures are weak and hamper the fight for climate action. However, "there were African countries that invested in the fight against corruption and made notable progress", the document adds.
According to the entity, corruption and the climate crisis are "strongly interconnected" phenomena and "to effectively combat the climate crisis, corruption must be placed at the center of the global debate."
“While billions of people around the world face the daily consequences of climate change, resources for adaptation and mitigation remain woefully inadequate. Corruption compounds these challenges, posing additional threats to vulnerable communities,” he stressed.
For example, “the lack of adequate transparency and accountability mechanisms increases the risk of climate funds being misused or diverted,” he said.
Thus, favoring the interests of restricted groups, to the detriment of the common good, has prevented the "adoption of ambitious policies and measures necessary to combat climate change", he indicated.
"The corruption crisis is a huge obstacle to solving the climate crisis," he lamented.
“As corruption grows in scale and complexity, more than two-thirds of countries now score below the midpoint [50] of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) – with huge and potentially devastating implications for global climate action,” he reiterated.
Another issue is that corruption could deepen the marginalization of vulnerable populations that disproportionately suffer the negative effects of climate change, he stressed.
“Without robust national anti-corruption measures, the effectiveness of global climate agreements such as the Paris Agreement remains at risk, further undermining efforts to combat the climate crisis,” he said.
“To improve the environmental and social outcomes of climate action, it is essential to ensure the inclusive design and implementation of climate initiatives, based on public participation,” he advised.
Transparency International is a global movement, based in Berlin, that wants "a world free from corruption," he explained.
