New Zealand's backflip on emission targets earned it 'Fossil of the Day' at the COP30 summit in Brazil. Photo: AFP / Ludovic Marin
New Zealand has tumbled in an international climate-change league table, with authors now ranking it as "low-performing".
The country fell three places to 44th in the Climate Change Performance Index, after already falling seven places last year.
The report's authors said New Zealand's continued slump was mainly due to a series of policy changes that amounted to "backsliding" on climate action.
The index, which has been compiled by international non-governmental organisations Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute every year since 2007, ranks 63 countries and the European Union.
Countries are rated across four categories - greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.
Co-author Thea Uhlich, from Germanwatch, said no country was ranked in first, second or third place.
"Like in the last years, the first three ranks are empty, because across all four categories... no country manages to be very good or good enough to be in the top three positions."
Denmark was the first country to be ranked, followed by the UK and Morocco.
Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US rounded out the bottom three places in the rankings.
"The USA has suffered a particularly remarkable decline - ranking third to last in the overall standings, just behind Russia," Uhlich said.
"The largest oil and gas-producing countries are virtually among themselves, and show no sign of departing from fossil fuels as a business model."
New Zealand-based experts and activists who contributed to the report said New Zealand had a "relatively robust policy framework", which had been largely stable since 2019.
"The political consensus has been a strength of the scheme, but this is being eroded by the current government, which announced in October 2025 that it will amend the 2050 target's methane component." the report said.
The government signalled the target would drop from a 24-47 percent emissions reduction by 2050, from 2017 levels, to a 14-24 percent reduction.
This change prompted climate activists at the annual COP climate summit, currently taking place in Brazil, to award New Zealand 'Fossil of the Day'.
Uhlich said there were other contributors to New Zealand's lower ranking.
"New Zealand's climate action is backsliding," she said. "For example, we see that they have a rollback on the ban on new offshore oil and gas fuel exploration, which is again focusing on fossil fuels and not on renewables."
However, she said New Zealand's high rating for renewables - which make up more than 80 percent of electricIty supply - was a "spark of hope".
The report noted that previous progress on developing further renewable supply had stalled.
David Tong, a New Zealander who works as a campaigner for Oil Change International, has contributed to the index for a decade.
The report could not take into account some of the most recent policy changes, such as this week's announcement that the government would further loosen clean car standards.
"New Zealand could expect an even worse rating, if the Climate Change Performance Index were re-assessed today," Tong said. "A lot has happened in the last four weeks, even since we provided the draft."
The latest changes would be taken into account in next year's report.
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts is in Brazil for the second week of talks at COP.
He declined to comment on the report as he had not received a copy.
New Zealand was committed to its international and domestic climate targets, he said.
"The latest projections released last month show we are on track for the first two emissions budgets and could hit carbon net zero as early as 2042."
Each nation had its own unique circumstances, Watts said.
"We're blessed with abundant renewable energy which means almost all our electricity is already renewable, but at the same time over half our emissions come from methane, which is far harder to abate without shutting down farms and sending that production offshore."
World Wildlife Fund NZ chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, whose organisation also contributed to the index, said the index received international attention, when it was released each year.
"It is seen as respected and authoritative analysis, and to see New Zealand plummet down the rankings in the last two iterations is pretty depressing and rather shameful."
New Zealand was risking its "very credible role" in the Pacific, a region that was becoming increasingly strategically important.
"Pacific leaders, leaders throughout our region, have repeatedly pleaded with governments, both Australia and New Zealand, to take meaningful climate action, not to restart offshore oil and gas exploration.
"Embracing the role of climate pariah is not going to advance New Zealand's interests with our Pacific partners."
The effects went beyond reputation, she said.
The policy changes were "setting up future generations of Kiwis to shoulder a relatively unconscionable burden, in terms of the cost of dealing to future climate-related weather".
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