ESG Research Update
/G7 analysis: Australia lagging in green competitiveness
New analysis by Monash University, University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science shows that Australia is diving into the G7 summit lagging behind other countries.
Australia’s competitiveness in sustainability and environmental protections has significantly declined across the past two decades, now rated 96 of 231 analysed countries. Countries ahead of the rest are Germany, consistently ranked number 1, followed by Italy, the United States, China and Japan.
The research team developed the Green Transition Navigator, a map that details a country’s green strengths and areas of improvement.
The report, Navigating the green transition: insights for G7, was published by Dr Penny Mealy from SoDa Labs in Monash Business School and Pia Andres of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School o Economics and Political Science. The paper analyses green competitiveness since 1995 amongst the 11 countries attending the G7 Leaders’ Summit, and China.
Key findings of the paper include:
Germany consistently ranks first in terms of range and number of complex and technologically advanced green products that are strong drivers of economic development and growth
Italy overtook the US in the 2000s and is now second place in the world rankings
Other leaders include China, Japan and the United Kingdom
Australia’s green competitiveness took a dive across the past 20 years
Australia is in the least favourable starting position in terms of exports of products with environmental benefits
Australia has just 12 ‘green strengths’ versus 59 in Canada and 153 in China
Some existing green competitive strengths for Australia include electric signal, safety and traffic controls and rail/tramway construction materials
