Not good. Not good at all.

Australia ranks fourth last out of 57 countries on the Climate Change Performance Index -- a ranking that charts the efforts which various countries have been making to avoid dangerous climate change.

The CPPI is compiled by three independent groups which monitor climate change and renewable energy policies -- the Climate Action Network, GermanWatch and the NewClimate Institute. The index has been going for 13 years and ranks countries according to four main criteria:

emissions (this category has double weighting)

climate policy

energy efficiency (which includes things like building standards and appliance standards)

renewable energies

This is an unusual "list". Positions 1, 2 and 3 remain vacant as they have in previous years, because the authors of the Index feel no country has yet done enough to prevent the dangerous impacts of climate change to earn a podium spot.

But otherwise, there are no holes on the list, which places Saudi Arabia on the bottom. Above it is Iran, then Korea, then Australia, then the U.S.

So why is our record on tackling climate change so woeful?