Australia Fourth Lowest Country for Climate Policy

Australia Ranked Fourth Last Among Low-Performing Countries for Climate Policy, Energy Use And Emissions Reduction

Bonn, November 15, 2017: Australia has again been shamed on the world stage for its inaction on climate change, taking 57th place out of 60 countries ranked in the 2018 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) report.

Australia was named among the “very low-performing countries” in three of the four categories the CCPI ranking is based on – greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and climate policy.

Australia was also listed among the lowest performing countries in terms of renewable energy.

“Australia appears to be going backwards,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Deputy Program Director, Susannah Compton, said.

“Recent howlers include scrapping subsidies for renewable energy in one of the sunniest countries on earth and propping up the embattled Adani mega-mine with offers of public handouts when no commercial bank will touch the project.

“Australia’s climate inaction is an anchor dragging down global progress towards limiting warming to 1.5C. And as the world’s largest coal exporter soon-to-be largest gas exporter, what happens here is of material concern to our Pacific neighbours and the Arctic ice melt.

“Australia urgently needs to strengthen its 2030 targets on emissions reductions and renewables, and announce credible policy pathways to meet them.”

The news comes around two weeks after the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) ‘Emissions Gap’ report found that Australia was on track to miss its Paris Agreement commitments by a significant margin.

Australia has pledged to reduce its emissions by 26-28 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. However, UNEP projects the nation’s emissions will rise to 592 million tons of C02 equivalent annually by 2030, far above the 429-440 MTCO2 level required.

Read the full CCPI report here

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