CANBERRA—Australia has been given a lowly global ranking for environmental performance, mainly because of its assessment as a climate change laggard.
The nation is ranked 49th out of 149 countries on the 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with a score of 79.8 per cent, behind countries like the United States and Brazil.
While major polluters China and India fared worse overall, they outperformed Australia on climate change.
The assessment was made before the federal Labor government ratified the Kyoto Protocol last month.
The rating sees Australia drop 29 places from its number 20 position in the 2006 inaugural index, which is produced by a team of environmental experts from the US universities Yale and Columbia.
The researchers gave the nation a 99.3 per cent score on environmental health, but it was dragged down by a 60.4 per cent mark for ecosystem vitality.
In the category of climate change - which makes up 50 per cent of the weighting for ecosystem vitality - Australia was rated at 42.5 per cent.
By comparison, China had a 52.7 per cent climate change score, India 57.9 and the United States 56.1.
"The laggards on climate change are typically countries with particularly carbon-intensive industry and electricity generation sectors, such as United Arab Emirates and Australia, or countries with high rates of deforestation relative to their small populations," the index report says.
Australia's greenhouse gas emissions per capita was given a 45.4 per cent score and for emissions per kilowatt-hour, 5.9 per cent. Water stress was 49.6.
Switzerland topped the EPI with a score of 95.5, followed by Norway and Sweden.
African nations filled the bottom spots, with Niger listed last.
The Central American nation of Costa Rica was the highest-ranked developing nation at number five.
New Zealand - which stood at number one in the 2006 index - came seventh in 2008.
"As the corporate sector has long understood, the ability to benchmark performance provides an important spur to lagging performers and valuable guidance on where to look for best practices," said Daniel Esty, director of the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy.
"Every country has something to learn from the 2008 EPI."