Australia ranks 110 in world for renewables development, energy efficiency

A new ranking of global energy and climate policies has placed Australia 110th in the world for development of renewable and low carbon energy sources and efficiency of supply – just after Benin and just before Trinidad and Tobago.

The World Energy Council’s annual ranking of energy and climate policies – the 2015 Energy Trilemma Index – rates the energy systems of countries across the world, based on how they are balancing the three key dimensions.

These are: energy security (a country’s ability to meet its current and predicted energy demand); energy equity (the accessibility and affordability of energy across the population); and environmental sustainability (the achievement of supply and demand-side energy efficiencies and the development of energy supply from renewable and other low-carbon sources.).

It is in the final category – environmental sustainability – that Australia ranks 110th. As you can see in the table below, it does better in the other two categories, ranking 6th and 14th for energy security and energy equity, respectively. Those high rankings are due to its abundant coal and gas resources, and its widespread grid.

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This puts Australia’s overall ranking on the 2015 Energy Trilemma Index at 17, just ahead of Colombia.

As you can see in the below chart, this is a downgrade on Australia’s position last year, and in 2013, suggesting a downward trend in two key energy policy areas, including renewable energy development and grid efficiency, at a time when so many other developed nations are heading in the opposite direction.

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So much so, this year’s index includes a “watch list”, created for countries “in the process of transitioning their energy systems, or where recent or unscheduled events that are not yet reflected in the data may lead to a change in their performance in the near future.”

Countries currently on the World Energy Council’s watch list include Germany, Japan, Italy, Mexico, the UAE, the UK. The US and South Africa are newcomers to the WEC’s “negative watch list” – South Africa due to its electricity crisis, and the US due to lack of investment in ageing infrastructure and exposure to extreme weather events.

Countries topping this year’s index, meanwhile, are Switzerland and Sweden, with triple ‘A’ scores. The UK, while still in the top 10, lost its ‘A’ grading for energy equity, moving it to ‘AAB’ status.

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According to the WEC, the UK downgrade reflects the challenges countries are facing in balancing the trade-offs of the trilemma goals and financing the transformation of their energy systems.

“Our research underlines how priorities vary from country to country – though energy security is key for all,” said World Energy Trilemma executive chair, Joan MacNaughton.

“And the report highlights a real issue for the 21st Conference of the Parties due to begin later this month in Paris, namely translating the Intended National Determined Contributions from international objectives into national level actions for energy.

“The investment required is huge, and driving it to the right places will require a balanced approach if countries are to meet the three goals of the trilemma,” she said.

“For countries to move up in the rankings and remain ahead of the pack, they must adopt prudent, forward-looking energy policies to meet decarbonisation goals and maintain competitiveness. This report provides a map for the long road from Paris to help policymakers and businesses chart a sustainable course.”

Comments

6 responses to “Australia ranks 110 in world for renewables development, energy efficiency”

  1. DogzOwn Avatar
    DogzOwn

    Is it time for Turnbull to make up for lost Tony time or did he already sell his soul?

  2. David K Clarke Avatar
    David K Clarke

    I looked up the report (https://www.worldenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/20151030-Index-report-PDF.pdf) and didn’t find any mention of Australia ranking 110th in energy sustainability?

  3. Alex Pittendreigh Avatar

    @dogzown:disqus Malcolm’s “NEW” Coalition has said some pretty words but so far have kept pushing to same defective product as Abbott. Time to stop with the weasel words and start ACTING now Malcolm, otherwise you will be considered a major fraud by the electorate.

    1. Rob Avatar
      Rob

      Spot on!

  4. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
    Humanitarian Solar

    This website often forgets the purpose of the words think globally and act locally. Its strong on global analysis. Shows how comfortable authors are with universalising data and their intellects. It is an illusion a country acts primarily through policy. It acts through individuals with physical bodies and their feet on the ground. I’d like to see articles on how to act and less on how to analyse. Sometimes I question if authors ever stretch their toes on the earth or spend their lives inhabiting their mind space. Reminds me of the difference between the environmentalist one finds in greenpeace, and I am in greenpeace, and the environmentalist one finds in catchment care groups, which I’ve been part of too. Both groups have a heart feeling of concern for the environment, and one is comfy acting through analysing solutions and the other using their hands and feet. It’s amazing how each group tend to hang around peers much like themselves and imagine their context for action is the most important. Really it’s the extremes and separation of these contexts when both need inform each other. It’s a character issue though isn’t it.

  5. Jens Stubbe Avatar
    Jens Stubbe

    Well Norway is ranked 6 and they are real pigs when it comes to the environment with huge investments in oil, gas and hydropower. Besides their energy consumption is significantly higher than any other Scandinavian country. At one point they started fertilizing the ocean using gas to produce the fertilizer because they speculated they could catch more fish. They have a huge production of fish that is fed with nasty stuff and pollute the environment. In they discover Lamprets on their salmon they kill all life in entire river systems just to be able to sell fishing certificates.

    Placing Norway near the top of any list pertaining renewables development or environment is a joke. But then again they also placed Costa Rica near the top of the list so the makers of the list apparently do not know how destructive hydropower is to the climate and nature.

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