UN scores Australia high for quality of life but low on climate change progress

Extract from The Guardian

Human Development ranking suggests we lead the world in many criteria, but our emissions efforts are an embarrassment

• Greg Jericho
• Monday 28 July 2014 12.20 EST
• theguardian.com

The repeal of the carbon price and efforts to reduce our renewable energy target are not a good look. Photograph: Angela Harper/AAP

Australia’s position as one of the best places in the world to live was reaffirmed last week with the release of the 2014 United Nations Human Development Report, which saw Australia ranked second only to Norway among all nations in the world.
The report, conducted by the UN Development Report Office, measures each nation against a number of criteria, including income, health, education and gender equality to rank 187 nations according to the Human Development Index (HDI).
Australia’s second ranking is not surprising. Not just because other measures such as the OECD’s Better life Index rank Australia as first, but because since 1998 Australia has been ranked in the top five nations on the HDI. Only Norway has had a longer run in the top five.

The report also examines environmental factors, such as depletion of forests and withdrawal of the nation’s fresh water supply. It notes that “climate change poses grave risks to all people and all countries” and that “between 2000 and 2012 more than 200 million people, most of them in developing countries, were hit by natural disasters every year, especially by floods and droughts”.
On this score Australia has a fair bit to be embarrassed about. In 2012, among the 25 most developed nations, Australia was among the lowest users of renewable energy and had the third highest emissions of CO2 per capita:

Environmental indicators

All figures from 2012. Renewable energy excludes nuclear poweer

Energy from renewables

CO2 emissions per capita (tonnes)

The report notes that “no country anywhere will be immune to the long-term effects of climate change” and that the way the world tackles climate change ... “can be critically important for reducing the frequency and magnitude of [developmental] shocks”.
So while our overall HDI score suggests we are leading the way, given the repeal of the carbon price and moves to weaken or remove the renewable energy target, the way Australia is tackling climate change is certainly not something the world should follow.