Australia ranked third-last in climate change performance

With results, Australia has come third last in an annual assessment of 58 nations’ climate policies, with only Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan ranking worse.

The assessment by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe was released at the Paris climate summit, just one day after foreign minister Julie Bishop told the assembled ministers Australia was meeting and beating its climate targets and transforming its energy production.

The report measures actual emission levels per capita, the trend in emissions projections, the deployment of renewable energy, and the energy intensity of the economy, and assesses climate policies for each of the 58 countries.

Australia’s score is slightly better than last year, but not enough to shift it very far up the rankings.

Overall results

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) ranks countries by a combination of emissions, development of emissions, efficiency, renewable energy and an assessment of climate policy.

Country	Rating	Ranking*
Denmark	71.19	1
United Kingdom	70.13	2
Sweden	69.91	3
Belgium	68.73	4
France	65.97	5
Cyprus	65.12	6
Morocco	63.76	7
Italy	62.98	8
Ireland	62.65	9
Luxembourg	62.47	10
Switzerland	62.09	11
Malta	61.82	12
Latvia	61.38	13
Hungary	60.76	14
Romania	60.39	15
Portugal	59.52	16
Lithuania	58.65	17
Croatia	58.43	18
Germany	58.39	19
Finland	58.27	20
Indonesia	58.21	21
India	58.19	22
Slovak Republic	57.83	23
Iceland	57.25	24
Mexico	57.04	25
Czech Republic	57.03	26
Egypt	56.96	27
Slovenia	56.87	28
Poland	56.09	29
Greece	55.06	30
United States	54.91	31
Netherlands	54.84	32
Norway	54.65	33
Bulgaria	53.85	34
South Africa	53.76	35
Malaysia	53.49	36
Algeria	53.3	37
Spain	52.63	38
New Zealand	52.41	39
Brazil	51.9	40
Belarus	51.18	41
Austria	50.69	42
Ukraine	49.81	43
China	48.6	44
Argentina	48.34	45
Thailand	48.16	46
Turkey	47.25	47
Estonia	47.24	48
Chinese Taipei	45.45	49
Russian Federation	44.34	50
Islamic Rep. of Iran	43.33	51
Singapore	42.81	52
Canada	38.74	53
Korea	37.64	54
Japan	37.23	55
Australia	36.56	56
Kazakhstan	32.97	57
Saudi Arabia	21.08	58

Australia’s high per capita emissions means it scores very badly in the first category of the assessment – measuring emissions levels. It scores better, although not well, in a second category assessing projected future emissions across a number of sectors. It also scores poorly on renewable energy deployment, where other countries are moving faster, and on both national and international climate policy.