Why Australia came last in 2022 Climate Change Performance Index report

A report ranking Australia dead last in the climate policy stakes has the same credibility as students marking their own homework, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says.

Australia has been ranked dead last in the climate policy stakes by an international group of environmental experts whose only local representatives come from progressive advocacy organisations that routinely campaign against the Morrison government and call for radical lifestyle changes to cut carbon emissions.

While around 450 climate and energy experts contributed to the 2022 Climate Change Performance Index report released this week, only four were from Australia.

Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said: “This ‘ranking’ has about the same credibility as students marking their own homework.

Senator Matt Canavan: Rranking has same credibility as students marking their own homework.

“Of course, green activists would rate Australia below China on climate change because for them it is not about climate change it is about political change.

“The green activists seem quiet happy with the governance standards of the Chinese Communist Party but they do want to get rid off the Liberal National Party.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure launch at the COP 26 Climate summit in Glasgow. Picture: Adam Taylor

The groups were Sustainable Business Australia, The Australia Institute, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Doctors for the Environment Australia, all of which have been highly critical of the Morrison government’s climate policies.

Recently the Australian Conservation Foundation set up a web page to enable visitors to send pre-written correspondence to the prime minister demanding a 75 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 and zero emissions within 15 years.

The Australia Institute’s Richie Merzian, who is listed as one of the experts in the report, has previously suggested that “the Government should mobilise all of society to tackle (climate change), like they did during the World Wars”.

He was also involved in setting up the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

The Australia Institute has previously been described as the most prominent progressive think tank in Australia.

Meanwhile in the lead-up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Doctors for the Environment spokeswoman Dr Eugenie Kayak claimed that climate change “is possibly the greatest health threat of this century,” suggesting that it would be worse than the Covid pandemic.

A Doctors for the Environment Australia tweet urging a radical change to our diets to save the planet.

The group has also said that wide-ranging lifestyle changes would be needed to prevent catastrophic climate change.

A recent thread on its Twitter account advocated for a “planetary diet” which recommends an allowed maximum 14 grams of red meat per day, or 98 grams per week

While the latest annual Climate Change Mitigation Index released Tuesday ranked Australia’s climate policies last out of 60 nations, it scored nations like China far better despite their carbon intensive economy and plans to continue building coal fired power plants..

A coal-powered power station belches smoke in Datong, China's northern Shanxi province. Picture: Noel Celis / AFP

Research from the Institute of Public Affairs has found that China – which came in at number 13 – emits more carbon in 16 days than Australia does in a year and that the nation has more than 200 coal fired power stations either under construction or in pre-construction planning phases.

Germany’s intensive decarbonisation plans also saw it score well, though critics have noted that the end of nuclear power and the drive for renewables has left the nation dangerously reliant on energy supplies from Russia as the northern hemisphere winter sets in.

The German government – whose policies came in 19th on the list – has recently been forced to slash energy surcharges designed to support and subsidise renewable power to help consumers cope with soaring costs.