At a CPP summit this week in Kiama, NSW, Macquarie University academic and climate change researcher Lesley Hughes noted councils were bearing the brunt of climate change. In the absence of any federal policy climate action, it seems, is increasingly being driven by communities and local government.

As a regional centre, and one often defined by our weather, it also makes economic sense to be at the forefront of climate action.

A key voice in the public conversation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that global warming – the result of greenhouse gas emissions – is destabilising climate, increasing the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events bringing devastating consequences.

The most recent report on what it will take to keep warming below 1.5˚C – the preferred target of climate scientists at the 2015 Paris climate summit – indicates we must reduce our current emissions by 60 per cent in 12 years, which means rapid transition to renewable energy.

On the conservative side of politics, the common view remains that we cannot afford to transition because coal has been such an important industry for Australia. “It’s not the right time,” was the recent assessment of federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.

While his Coalition colleagues vary in their views on whether climate change is caused by human activity, they appear united on their stance that immediate action is not needed.

This may explain why the Environment Department’s report on Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions for the past year was withheld for seven weeks, only to be finally released on the weekend of the footy finals – “buried” in media terms.

The figures show that Australia’s emissions have not declined but have risen 1.3 per cent and are now a billion tonnes of CO2 higher than our committed target under the 2015 Paris agreement.

On the surface, it might appear reasonable to argue that rapid transition to a green economy based on renewable energy would be economically irresponsible. But that position ignores the huge volume of scientific evidence pointing to the catastrophic consequences of further delay. Mr Frydenberg’s assessment is wrong. There is no more time. This is clear in the latest IPCC report.

As Climate Action Tracker graphs show, the historical trend is leading to warming of 4˚C or more, and while pledges made at Paris – if fully implemented – could reduce this to below 3˚C, this is still too high. The IPCC Report says the world will have to be carbon neutral by 2047 to give us a 66 per cent chance of limiting warming to 1.5˚C.

To constrain global warming to this limit this we must: 1) source 70-85 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2050; 2) put a price on greenhouse gas emissions; and 3) develop technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

While Ballarat, like many communities is sensibly biting the bullet and investing in renewable alternatives, in the “Canberra bubble”, conservative politicians remain disinclined to acknowledge that Australia has already delayed too long.

The interests of the coal industry have driven federal policy for too long. In one sense the treasurer is correct, this is not the right time — the “right” time was 26 years ago, after the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, when the IPCC’s forecasts regarding the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming first gained mass media attention.

Global warming of 1˚C is now already locked in. Even if we respond immediately and keep warming within 1.5˚C, our failure to act earlier has bequeathed us more heatwaves, floods, droughts and coral reef die-offs. But the limit of 1.5˚C – compared to the previously agreed 2˚C limit – would enable us to avoid the more severe impacts, namely to protect 10.4 million people from sea level rise, reduce deaths due to heat-related diseases and halve the number of people left without sufficient water. Clearly business as usual, which will result in +3˚C warming, is not an option.

It is imperative that we view the increase in extreme weather events very seriously as harbingers of worse to come. All levels of government need to be made accountable. This is a problem that is not going to go away. In the words of Professor Hughes: “What we are facing is a planetary catastrophe. People need to act now.”

Mary Debrett is a board member of BREAZE.