Australia worst G20 country on climate action: Report
Australia is the G20’s worst country in relation to action on climate change, according to new findings by environmental research group, Climate Transparency. The group analysed the policies of each of the countries in the G20, which together are responsible for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Australia was the only country to be rated “very poor” in a majority of categories. Half of the G20 countries were given the lowest rating of “inadequate” in relation to the 2030 emissions reduction targets agreed at the Paris climate accord. The other 10 scored just “medium” regarding such targets.

Australia is the worst country among the G20 when it comes to action on climate change, according to a comprehensive assessment before the G20 summit in China.

Under China’s leadership, this weekend’s G20 in the eastern city of Hangzhou has had a strong focus on climate-related issues.

By analysing the policies and actions of each of the 20 countries, which together produce 75% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, Climate Transparency produced a report, scorecard and series of country profiles detailing their findings, revealing Australia was not pulling its weight.

On the scorecard, Australia was the only country to receive a rating of “very poor” in a majority of categories.

Australia was given the worst possible rating of “very poor” for its performance on emissions trends, carbon intensity, share of renewables in its energy supply and overall climate policy.

It was rated as “poor” in every other category: for its energy intensity, share of coal in energy supply and electricity emissions intensity.

Alvaro Umaña, co-chair of Climate Transparency and a former Costa Rican environment minister, said: “The G20 has proven that it can be nimble and take action on economic issues, so we are looking to these countries to do the same for the climate.”

Along with half the other G20 nations, Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction targets committed to at Paris – making up Australia’s intended nationally determined contribution – were given the worst possible rating of “inadequate”.

However, none of the 20 nations’ commitments were labelled as “sufficient” or “role model”, with the remaining 10 scored as “medium”.

The report notes that if every country emulated Australia’s level of ambition, global warming would likely exceed 4C.

It also said that Australia’s currently implemented policy measures were not set to achieve even those inadequate targets and instead would rise to about 27% above 2005 levels by 2030, rather than the targeted 26 to 28% below 2005 levels.

The report comes one day after Australia’s Climate Change Authority produced its long-awaited “special review”, recommending that the country should institute two emissions trading schemes.

The review also highlighted that Australia’s current policies were not able to achieve the existing inadequate targets. But the report was heavily criticised by commentators – and also by two of the authority’s members – for not making recommendations about how the country can meet international obligations to do its part in keeping global warming “well below” 2C.

Australia’s support for financing the transition to renewable energy was rated as “medium” by Climate Transparency, noting there had been “prolonged policy uncertainty resulting from volatile political support for substantive climate change policy”.

Those findings are expected to be underlined in another report being released on Thursday by WWF France and WWF China arguing that a global energy transition is already under way and the G20 countries need to simply accelerate action towards that goal. WWF Australia will say the report serves as a wakeup call for Australian policy makers.

Last week international investors controlling $13tn worth of funds urged the G20 to accelerate investment in clean energy, saying countries that ratified the Paris agreement early would benefit by attracting investment in low-carbon technology.

Those calls were particularly timely, coming as the the Australian parliament considers the effective abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and one day after Guardian Australia revealed that new uncertainty had already caused at least two renewable energy projects to be suspended.