Australia's energy policy has ranked 22nd in the World Energy Council's  Policies for the Future assessment of global energy and climate policies.

 

The UK based charity's list was topped by Switzerland, followed by Sweden, France, Germany and Canada.

 

"Our index shows clearly that even countries with abundant energy resources, wealth and political stability struggle to provide stable, affordable and environmentally sensitive energy," Pierre Gadonneix, Chairman of the World Energy Council said.

 

"The countries that tend to be the best at balancing the resulting trade-offs between these interests are those that have diversified their energy resources and actively manage demand for energy through well-established energy-efficiency programmes."

 

The report indicates a direct correlation between abundance of energy resources found in each country and their decreasing position on the list.

 

The report found that a mixture of solid policies and market based solutions achieved greatest level of energy efficiency.

 

"This report shows that market led solutions are not enough on their own to achieve energy sustainability. Only with coherent and robust policies, led by a clear vision, can countries reach equilibrium in the long term. Countries must adopt stable regulatory regimes if they are to regain investors trust and support the huge volumes of capital investment required to ensure a stable supply of energy," Executive Chair of the report, Joan MacNaughton said.

 

The full report can be found here