The main reasons for Germany's improvement were its efforts to further international climate protection at summits of the European Union and the G8 this year, bodies which Berlin chaired at the time, according to the groups.

"When it comes to politics, Germany even gets first place," Germanwatch's Jan Burck told German news agency DPA from the UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia.

But even Sweden, which held the top spot on the Climate Change Performance Index last year as well, was not an example of ideal performance, the study determined. And the international community was far from honoring its responsibilities, the groups said.

Better, but not good

"Hardly any state is on the route that we need overall to keep the global temperature increase below two degrees and prevent a global climate destabilization," Matthias Duwe, director of Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-Europe), told DPA.

Neither Germany nor Sweden, however, should see the study as a reason to boast about their current ranking, Burck said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

"None of the countries, even in the top ten, are doing a quite good job," Burck told DW. "Even the front-runners are more the one-eyed king among of the blind than really good climate protectors."

He added that the ranking compared countries relative to each other, "[The top nations] do better than the rest, but actually they do not sufficient work to combat dangerous climate change."

US the worst

Twelve EU countries were among the top 20 states on the index, including Britain, France Hungary and Malta.

Australia, the United States and Saudi Arabia were at the very bottom of the index, at spots 54, 55 and 56 respectively.

The 10 highest emitters of carbon dioxide were the same as in 2006, with the United States in the top slot, followed by China. Germany held sixth place on that list.

The Climate Change Performance Index ranked 56 countries that CAN-Europe and Germanwatch said were responsible for more than 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. It looked at three indicators to establish countries' rankings: per-capita emissions trends over previous years, absolute energy-related CO2 emissions and domestic and international climate policy.