The UK has received the second highest score for tackling climate change.

It was ranked behind Denmark and followed by Sweden.

The ‘Climate Change Performance Index’ (CCPI) highlighted the UK has a “relatively” low emissions level and it continues to expand renewables.

The government also announced a “nationwide coal phase-out with a settled deadline”, the report added.

It stated Denmark has “effective” climate protection policies for energy efficiency and renewables, making the nation “a role model in terms of climate protection”.

The US and China, currently in 34th and 47th place, improved their ranking by moving away from coal and investing “massively” in renewable energy.

However Australia, Japan, Korea and Canada are at the bottom of the ranking, stated the report by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.

Jan Burck author of the CCPI said: “The energy intensity of the global economy is further declining. In the next years, it will be crucial to decarbonise the energy sector on a global scale. The years 2013 and 2014 saw for the first time a higher amount of newly installed capacity from renewables than from all other energy sources combined; indicating that many countries have already started decarbonising their energy sector.”

“For decarbonising the energy system on a global scale, it will be important that the worlds emerging economies manage to decarbonise their energy sector before their economies are as dependent on coal as the ones from developed countries.”