Abbott’s Australia ranked dead last on climate, green investment

Australia’s dramatic backwards slide on climate action and low-carbon policy under the federal Coalition is, by now, well documented. Since coming into power, Tony Abbott and his climate-sceptic team have dumped the nation’s world-leading carbon pricing scheme, wound back renewable energy support mechanisms, and taken aim at the Climate Change Authority, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, ARENA and the RET.

But a new international report puts just how far Australia has fallen behind the rest of the world on climate, clean energy and green investment into sharp perspective.

The fourth edition of the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) was released on Monday, measuring the green economic performance of 60 countries based on four key dimensions: leadership & climate change, efficiency sectors, markets & investment and environment & natural capital.

Embarrassingly enough, Australia’s performance on actions that support clean energies and combat climate change ranks 37th – down from fourth spot in 2012.

But in the Leadership section, Australia comes a resounding last – a result the GGEI report puts down to negative media coverage, “unconstructive behavior” in international forums, and oervall poor climate change performance.

“Australia’s debate over a carbon tax has thrust the country into the international spotlight this year, perhaps leading to a greater understanding of the country’s overall green economic merits,” the report says.

The report also puts Australia in a “concerning” category with other developed nations (Japan and the US among them), where perceptions of their green economic performance dramatically exceed their actual performance.

“These countries appear to receive more credit than they deserve, an information gap that requires further exploration,” the report says. “It is a rare case where its perception score significantly exceeds its performance one.”

The opposition Labor Party has seized upon the report’s findings, describing them as “not the least bit surprising.”

“Tony Abbott’s international reputation for climate change inaction is growing, to the detriment of Australian businesses who are trying to retain and attract overseas investors,” Shadow Minister for Climate Change Mark Butler said.

“Where Australia was once leading the world, developing countries such as Kenya and Rwanda are now taking more meaningful action against climate change.”

Butler also expressed concern for Australia’s renewable energy sector, saying this latest condemnation of Australia’s clean energy status was the last thing the industry needed, in the wake of the government’s RET Review.

“Tony Abbott’s Direct Action policy is a joke, his attacks on renewable energy by attempting to scrap the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Clean Energy Finance Corporation are nonsensical and his anti-climate change rhetoric is now costing Australian businesses.”

“He needs to move away from his ideological stubbornness and work in the best interest of Australia,” Butler said.

The Australian Greens were also quick to respond to the report’s findings, describing Australia’s march down the rankings as a tragedy.

“Poor climate performance, unconstructive leadership and negative media coverage on the global stage just about sum up Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister, full stop,” Greens leader Christine Milne said in a statement on Monday.

“Opportunities, skills and investment have been lost overseas because of Tony Abbott’s refusal to act as the science tells us we must.”

The GGEI report – compiled each year by US company Dual Citizens – this year expanded to include a ranking of each country’s green investment market appeal, as well as their performance in key efficiency sectors; while also calculating their environment & natural capital for the first time.

The 2014 chart toppers included Germany and Sweden, which the report said confirmed a trend of strong results by Germany and the Nordic states.

“Besides performing well on both the economic and environmental areas of the GGEI, these nations display consistent green leadership and receive global recognition for it,” the report said.

Costa Rica – a new entrant in the Index this year – was also noted to have performed “extremely well”, ranking third on the GGEI performance measure behind Sweden and Norway and receiving strong recognition on the perception survey.

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, was ranked the top green city in the survey of global experts.