Australia Ranked Worst Of 57 Countries For Climate Policy

A lot has been said about the Australian government's approach to climate change.

Coalition politicians have been reluctant to link the recent bushfires, worsening drought and extraordinarily hot temperatures of late to climate change and instead have blamed the conditions on a whole host of things.

But this, in addition to the broader climate policy, has resulted in the Land Down Under ranking pretty low on a list of 57 countries.

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The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index, which has been put together by a group of thinktanks including the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch, have ranked dozens of countries for their emissions, renewable energy, energy use and policy.

Sadly, Australia registered sixth worst.

But when it came to national and international climate policy, our sun-blessed country was the worst of the 57 countries listed. That is bloody embarrassing.

The report said: "Experts note that the new government is an increasingly regressive force in negotiations and has been criticised for its lack of ambition by several Pacific Island nations in the context of this year's Pacific Island Forum.

"The dismissal of recent IPCC reports, the government not attending the UN Climate Action Summit in September, and the withdrawal from funding the Green Climate Fund (GCF) underpin the overall very low performance in the climate policy category."

Countries were given a score out of 100 and Australia recorded 0.0, compared to Portugal, who topped the list with 97.8. The European country was heralded for setting a zero emissions target by 2050 as well as cutting it to 55 per cent by 2030.

According to the Guardian, Australia, by comparison, was criticised for not having a clear and understandable long-term solution.

PA

"While the government is not proposing any further targets for renewable energy beyond 2020, it continues to promote the expansion of fossil fuels and in April 2019 approved the opening of the highly controversial Adani coalmine," the report notes.

The report has been seized on by Labour politicians, who have slammed the government for its inaction.

But the Coalition has even been dragged by one of its own in the form of former leader Malcolm Turnbull.

The former Prime Minister told Q&A on Monday: "When Australians' lives are at risk, when they are being threatened, when their families and their homes and their crops and properties and everything they hold dear is being put at threat - that's a national security issue."

It'll be interesting to see how the government responds to this report.

Topics: News, Australia, politics

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie