Marc Daalder
Wellington, November 21, 2024
New Zealand has dropped seven places to 41st in the global Climate Change Performance Index, which ranks countries based on their emissions, deployment of renewable electricity, overall energy use and climate policy.
The announcement of the latest update to the index, which has been running since 2005 and is considered an authoritative evaluation of the climate performance of 63 nations, came at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday. The top three slots in the index were left blank, to reflect that no country is ticking all four boxes evaluated.
Not doing enough
“Countries really, at the end of the day, are not doing enough. That is the message of the CCPI,” Janet Milongo, from Climate Action Network International, said at the announcement of the index.
“There is an opportunity, several opportunities, really for countries to step up and really flip into emergency mode at this point. It is no coincidence that the worst performers in the index are actually the largest fossil fuel producers.”
New Zealand’s drop in the rankings takes it from ‘medium’ to ‘low’ performance, behind countries like the United Kingdom and South Africa, but still ahead of some of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, like Australia and Saudi Arabia.
On renewable energy, New Zealand outperformed the average, coming in sixth place with ‘high’ performance. But it was dragged down by a ‘very low’ rating on energy use, ranking 49th, and landed just 12th from the bottom on climate policy.
“A new Government was elected in October 2023, and the CCPI country experts note that it has taken significant backward steps in climate policy. It is unclear how New Zealand will meet its international climate obligations or its 2050 emissions reduction target,” the index reported.
Four-fifths of the rating is quantitative, with emissions given a 40% weighting and energy use and renewable deployment given a 20% weighting each. Experts from each country then qualitatively evaluate the climate policy for the remaining 20% of the ranking.
Backtracking on Climate Policy
David Tong, the Global Industry Lead for Oil Change International, was also one of the reviewers who evaluated New Zealand’s climate policies for the index. He said the repeal of the oil and gas ban and the Government’s delays in pricing agricultural emissions contributed to its downgrading.
“It is no surprise that New Zealand has been downgraded in the ratings given that the Government has walked back climate policy. For the Climate Change Performance Index reviewers, the Government’s singular focus on the Emissions Trading Scheme is not seen positively,” he said.
“New Zealand National governments have successively said that they aim not to be a leader but a fast follower, or in the middle of the pack, on climate policy. What we are seeing in the Climate Change Performance Index this year is the Government falling down backwards, rapidly making its way to the bottom of the pack.”
Newsroom reported last week that the Government will finalise the repeal of the oil and gas ban within a month of the end of the climate summit, even while New Zealand’s diplomats in Baku are pushing for a global phase-out of fossil fuels. Unredacted legal advice released to Newsroom also shows officials believe the move is “likely” to breach New Zealand’s free trade agreements.
Mr Tong said the contrast with New Zealand’s major, environmentally minded trading partners like the United Kingdom and European Union will raise eyebrows overseas. Those nations ranked sixth and 17th, respectively.
“The repeal of the offshore oil and gas ban is likely to be looked at poorly from major trading partners. We will almost certainly be ejected from the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and it will not go unnoticed in Brussels and in London that New Zealand’s Government is proceeding with this repeal despite legal advice that it could be contrary to our country’s free trade agreements with those nations.”
Quiet Quitting
Jan Burck, one of the Co-authors of the index report, said New Zealand’s lack of a realistic plan to meet its climate targets was another factor in the downgrade.
“New Zealand’s former government set relatively strong targets, but the experts from New Zealand are criticising the new Government, that all the policies that are needed to implement these good targets are lacking and are not there anymore, especially when it comes to agriculture, which is the main issue in New Zealand,” he told Newsroom.
“So we see a huge difference at the moment between what they plan and what they are actually doing.”
Greenpeace Aotearoa Spokesperson Amanda Larsson said the performance index ranking was a recognition that New Zealand was “quiet-quitting” on climate policy.
“New Zealand cannot rely on its renewable electricity and being a signatory to the Paris Agreement as get out of jail free cards anymore. The world is waking up to the reality that New Zealand is quiet-quitting in the fight to stop the climate crisis by saying they are committed to climate action while simultaneously rolling back virtually every single initiative that would actually reduce emissions,” she said.
“It is no secret that this Government’s approach to environmental policy is to let the polluters write the rules and that is why New Zealand has dropped in the rankings.”
Marc Daalder is a Senior Political Reporter at Newsroom. He covers climate change, health, energy and violent extremism. The above article, which appeared on the Newsroom website, has been reproduced under a Special Agreement.
