A dust storm on a drought-stricken Australian sheep paddock. Photo:Getty
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JULY 1st 2021
Out of all the 193 United Nations member country, Australia had ranked the lowest in terms of climate action and progress according to a report that had assessed the global progression towards achieving sustainability.
The latest edition of the annually-published Sustainable Development Report, which is frequently produced by the United Nations-backed Sustainable Development Solutions Network, found that of all the 193 UN climate action member countries, Australia had been ranked dead last, with Brunei, Qatar and Norway following the low rankings.
“Australia has received similar rankings from other comparable studies, including the Climate Change Performance Index, which last year ranked Australia second last behind only Trump’s America,” said a climate expert at the Australia Institute, Richie Merzian, who wasn’t at all shocked by the report.
He added: “The federal government has no climate and energy policy and instead has cherry-picked technologies, many of which support the fossil fuel industry.”
It was noted in the report that Australia had not actually made any commitments to net neutrality by 2050, unlike other countries. The country’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison had instead made the insistence that Australia would be aiming to reach net neutrality as soon as possible, and that it would be “preferably” by 2050 – a wording that many have taken as an excuse for refusal to commit to climate goals.
Each country had been scored in the report, based on their progress towards switching entirely to “affordable and clean energy,” and general climate action. Australia had scored the lowest, at only 10 out of 100 for the ‘climate action’ category. The score takes fossil fuel emissions and progress towards greener emissions into account.
“According to the Net Zero Tracker, more than 30 countries have included climate neutrality by 2050 (or 2060) in laws, proposed legislation, or a national policy document. These include all G20 countries except Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Brazil and China committed to climate neutrality by 2060,” said the report, specifying that PM Morrison’s lack of commitment was also a deciding factor in the score.
