As Australia puts more focus on climate change, New Zealand is accused of pulling back

Two major countries’ approach to climate change has turned upside down Down Under.

Australia and New Zealand, whose governments both changed hands in their most recent national elections, have undergone a role reversal of sorts when it comes to climate change, with consequences for their own populations as well as the South Pacific region, where they are the dominant players.

According to the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world, with nearly 80% of the world’s climate-induced displacement taking place there.

Rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification, unpredictable rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts have an especially big impact on tiny Pacific Island nations such as Palau, Tuvalu and Kiribati, threatening their socioeconomic viability, tourism industries and very existence as the ocean swallows more of their land.

Australia, long known as a climate “laggard,” has taken a more aggressive stance under the Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

New Zealand, meanwhile, has been accused of pulling back on its climate goals under the Conservative government of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who succeeded former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last year.

Luxon told Radio New Zealand’s “Morning Report” last month he “rejects” such criticism and that his government is “deeply committed to net carbon zero 2050” and prioritizing the development of renewable energy. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

Though the country of 5 million is a relatively small greenhouse gas emitter on a global basis, it has one of the highest per capita emissions rates among the 38 major countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“We’re not the poster country that we used to be,” said Ralph Sims, a professor of sustainable energy at Massey University in New Zealand.

Critics argue that both countries are falling short as they head to this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, which starts Monday in Azerbaijan.

“I don’t think they have a great image for what they’re doing in the region,” Sarah Clement, an associate professor in environmental policy at the Australian National University, said of Australia.

Australia: Big promises from a fossil fuel giant

When Albanese came to power in 2022, he vowed to lead the country out of the climate “naughty corner.” His foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the new Labor government would “stand shoulder to shoulder with our Pacific family” in the fight against climate change.

The government legislated higher emissions reductions targets, introduced a “safeguard mechanism” that would act as a carbon cap for the country’s biggest emitters and negotiated a vehicle efficiency standard aimed at disincentivizing the use of high-polluting cars.

But critics including the Climate Action Tracker say the Australian government has “failed to deliver” on its climate promises.

“We have seen a positive change in terms of rhetoric and announcements since the 2022 election. Whether that is translated into actual action and outcomes is another story,” said Polly Hemming, director of the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute, an independent public policy think tank.

“Standing shoulder to shoulder with Pacific Island nations seems not to mean doing anything Pacific Island leaders have asked,” Hemming said.

Albanese’s office and the office of his minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, did not respond to requests for comment.

Australia came in for special criticism last month at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa. Senior officials from Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji pointed to a report that found Australia, Canada and Britain are responsible for 60% of emissions generated by fossil fuel extraction across the 56 members of the Commonwealth since 1990, despite representing only 6% of the Commonwealth’s population.

Wong responded that Australia cannot be held responsible for emissions from coal and gas it exports to other countries.

Critics argue that the Albanese government, like its conservative predecessor, is more wedded to fossil fuel interests than tackling climate change in any substantive way.

Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter after Russia and the United States. Researchers at Climate Analytics, a global climate science and policy institute based in Berlin, found that Australia is responsible for about 4.5% of global carbon emissions, with 80% of those emissions coming from its fossil fuel exports.

“They’re just not giving the same amount of money or legislative support to renewable energy or green manufacturing as they are to fossil fuels,” Hemming said.

According to the Australia Institute, in the 2023-24 budget, the Australian government provided about 11.8 billion Australian dollars ($7.9 billion) in subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major consumers.

“It’s just a really antiquated way of looking at economic development,” Clement said.

“It would take a lot of courage to remove those subsidies, but that right there would be a huge source of income that you could use to invest in renewables.”

Although the International Energy Agency says all unabated coal and oil power plants must be phased out by 2040 to limit the effects of global warming, this year the Australian government allowed three coal mines in the state of New South Wales to extend their operations for another three to four decades.

Pacific Island nations have long urged Australia to phase out fossil fuel production. This will be a key sticking point as Australia lobbies to co-host the U.N. climate change conference in 2026 alongside its Pacific neighbors.

New Zealand: Faltering climate leadership

By contrast, New Zealand has long had a global green image.

But it is now run by its most conservative government in decades, which aims to reverse a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, double mineral exports by 2035 and establish a “fast track” for major development projects that bypasses environmental approvals and conservation concerns.

The country no longer offers subsidies for electric vehicles and delayed the introduction of world-first agricultural emissions pricing to the next decade, despite almost half of the country’s emissions coming from agriculture.

In a statement to NBC News, New Zealand Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said the government was focusing on a technology-led approach to managing agricultural emissions and had committed more than $400 million to that effort over the next four years.

Sims said New Zealand will be required to buy billions of offshore credits if it’s going to reach its Paris Agreement goals of reducing emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050.

“It’s going to be very challenging for New Zealand to meet its obligations without being much more stringent on reducing its domestic emissions,” Sims said.

Watts said the New Zealand government was focusing on a technology-led approach to managing agricultural emissions and had committed more than $400 million to that effort over the next four years. He said the government was committed to meeting its climate change goals and is on track to achieve net zero by 2050.

Nathan Cooper, an associate professor and convenor of international engagement at the University of Waikato, said the government was prioritizing adaptation over mitigation, a strategy that has been criticized as relying too heavily on technology that may never materialize.

“It’s a big risk,” Cooper said.

With its climate leadership perceived to be weakening, New Zealand may get a cooler reception at COP than in previous years, especially from Pacific Island nations, Cooper said.

High on the agenda in Azerbaijan will be a global climate finance goal for after 2025, when the current goal of $100 billion per year expires.

In August, a coalition of Australian and New Zealand NGOs called on the two countries to declare their support for a new goal of $1 trillion a year to help Pacific Island and other lower-income countries mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

The power and leadership that Australia could bring to multilateral negotiations “would be absolutely extraordinary,” Hemming said, “especially in conjunction with these small island developing states that Australia likes to call family.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com