Canberra: Australia stands less ready than many other countries to protect its living standards under a strict international climate change agreement according to a new global carbon competitiveness index.
According to the index, compiled by UK consultancy Vivid Economics, Australia ranks just 15th on a list of how well the G20 nations are positioned to protect the economic well-being of their citizens in a low carbon world - well behind France, Great Britain, Japan, Korea, Germany and even China.
The index, co-commissioned by the Climate Institute think tank, seeks to measure countries' ability to compete in the international economy after a climate change agreement in contrast to traditional assessments of how such an agreement would impede their competitiveness in the world as it exists now.
"This shows the best investment we can make in future jobs and living standards is to take action now to reduce our emissions and reform our economy,'' said Climate Institute chief executive John Connor.
"We are too fixated on the rear vision mirror, this report shows we need to accelerate investment in our carbon competitiveness...prevent further handouts for big polluters, start a stronger carbon pollution reduction scheme and implement more decisive energy efficiency measures,'' he said.
A second index measures how quickly countries are decoupling their dependence on fossil fuels from their economic growth, and on this measure Australia fares a little better, coming in seventh after Germany, South Africa, Mexico, Great Britain, France and the USA.
A third index compares how quickly countries are improving their "carbon productivity'' with how much they need to change to maintain their growth rates. On this measure Australia again rates very poorly, coming in with Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey as a country that needs make the biggest turnaround in its economy.
Only Mexico and Argentina are currently improving their carbon productivity at a rate which, if continued, of an ambitious global climate change agreement by 2020.
"South Africa and Germany are close to being on target and China would also be close if it could return to the carbon productivity gains it made in the 1990s. Australia comes in at a poor 16th with only Turkey, Russia and Saudi Arabia requiring bigger turnarounds in their economies.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will attend a G20 meeting in Pittsburgh later this month which will consider plans for a massive financing fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change - seen as critical to breaking the international negotiating deadlock in the lead-up to the Copenhagen summit in December.
The European Union said this week it thought at least $165 billion a year would be needed for such a fund by 2020 - from developed and richer developing nations as well as private sources.
The Australian Government has not said how much it might pledge to such a fund, but has acknowledged the issue is critical for the success of the Copenhagen talks.
First Published: Monday, September 14, 2009, 09:56