It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna go Green)

Australia ranked in the bottom 3, of 56 countries when it comes to upholding Paris Agreement COP 21 pledges. 


My distaste for the Australian Government's climate change policy is quite profound, this was taken even further when I came across a popular science piece in The Sydney Morning Herald . The article outlines the findings of a report compiled by a panel of international climate analysts, who have categorized the uptake of initiatives and steps taken to uphold the pledges of the COP 21 Paris agreement, of each country. Australia was ranked 57th among countries analysed (spots 1-3 were void as no country was deemed to be doing enough to be in the top 3). This places Australia even below the USA, under renowned climate activist, Donald Trump.

The full report goes into more detail, describing key facets of climate policy and ranking them on a scale of very low performing - very high performing. The components of the CCPI (shown in figure 1) were Climate policy, Energy use, Renewable energy and Greenhouse gas emissions. Australia ranked among the 'very low' performers for Climate policy, Energy use and Greenhouse gas emissions, whilst rising to the dizzying heights of 'low performer' for renewable energy.


Figure 1. From CCPI. Showing components of the CCPI
GHG = Greenhouse Gases. TPES = Total Primary Energy Supply

For a country with seemingly so much potential to seize the initiative and become a leader, it's sad to see Australia languishing with countries such as Saudi Arabia at the bottom of Climate action takers.

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