Members of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) are disappointed their country has been ranked 55 in the recent release of the Germanwatch Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).
While Australia has improved three places from last year, it still ranks well behind other developed nations.
DEA spokesman Dr John Iser said the improvement was due to its strengthened Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) but the emissions target of 43 per cent below the 2005 level by 2030 was still well below what would be required to stay within its carbon budget and to achieve net-zero by 2050.
Positive changes to climate foreign policy and electric vehicle uptake have helped contribute to the higher ranking.
While the assessment was done when Labor had been in power for only four months, it does not account for more favourable policies announced since, such as joining the Global Methane Pledge.
Dr Iser said Australia still failed massively with its reliance on fossil-fuel mining.
"As yet there are no policies to phase out subsidies and exports of coal and gas which are still among the highest in the world," Dr Iser said.
As a national assessment, the CCPI judges Australia a little unfairly as much of its progress has been gained by state policies.
The states have pressed on with renewable energy and battery storage to enable Australia to achieve the highest uptake of solar conversion to electricity per capita in the world.
This gain must now be supplemented by national policies to offer more incentives for electric vehicle car imports, strengthen building efficiency standards and curb emissions by industry and agriculture.
"There is still much to be done," he said.
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