Dr Diesendorf said marches, consumer boycotts, corporate shareholder campaigning, and withdrawal of deposits from environmentally irresponsible financial institutions could allow renewable energy to flourish and become mainstream.

"We have this portfolio of different technologies and already most of them are commercially available unlike coal carbon geosequestration, which is a long way from being commercially viable," he told the forum.

"So we've got wind, bioenergy _ burning sugar cane waste in Queensland _ we have solar in homes, solar hot water, we have solar power, flat face and concentrated and coming up very soon we will have hot rock geothermal power," he said.

"Last year in Europe wind power was the technology that installed the most power generating capacity.

"I think the principal hope for change is through private action," he said.

Dr Diesendorf praised the efforts of BREAZE and similar groups in Ballarat, Castlemaine, Bendigo and the Hepburn shire,

"This whole region is so impressive and we can build on that, but we have to do some additional things on top of what you are already doing," he said.

He said the former Howard Government had low greenhouse targets and had starved renewable energy research.

"Some of our best people left the country because they couldn't get funded. Fortunately some of them landed on their feet. One of them landed in the arms of an IT billionaire in California and he's doing wonderful things there.

"They did set a Mandatory Renewable Energy Target for 2010, but the target was so small that we reached it in 2006 and then we went from boom to bust."

Dr Diesendorf was critical of smaller scale government efforts such as the solar park under construction in Ballarat.

"We have some token demonstration products which are better than nothing, and I know you have Solar Cities in this region but they are token," he said.