Some of the country's largest religious groups are calling for Australia to commit to, what they describe as, more ambitious emissions reduction targets -- saying there's a moral imperative to cut pollution.
The federal government is expected to announce its post-2020 reduction targets at a United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year.
Kristina Kukolja reports.
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Anglican, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish leaders are among the signatories of a letter being sent to federal politicians from the major parties with an appeal to raise Australia's emissions reduction targets.
The instigator of the letter is the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, or A-R-R-C-C, which describes itself as a network that conducts faith-based political advocacy on climate change.
Chairwoman Thea Ormerod says the letter proposes very specific pollution reduction goals for Australia: 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025, and 80 per cent below by 2030.
"They're more or less the upper limits of the figures that are recommended by the UN for wealthy countries. We believe Australia should aim higher than even other wealthy countries because we have derived a lot of profit and a lot of our lifestyle from polluting the atmosphere. So, we have a kind of debt or an historical obligation to compensate for the fact that we've actually benefited greatly from these destructive practices."
Ms Ormerod says the group also wants to see Australia increase its contribution to the United Nations Green Climate Fund.
Of the more than 10-billion U-S dollars raised so far for the U-N Green fund, and the over 100-billion pledged, Australia's contribution amounts to 200-million-dollars.
Australia has formally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least five per cent by 2020, compared to 2000 levels, towards an international commitment to keep global warming under two degrees celsius.
By comparison, the United States, one of the world's two largest polluters, has promised to double the rate of pollution reduction by 2025, to a rate of 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels.
The other, China, says its emissions will peak by around 2030.
Thea Ormerod says Australia is falling behind.
"So many other countries and spokespersons are critical of the Australian government stance. They're starting to become more and more vocal. Our figures don't compare very well with the figures of other countries, particularly Europe, and northern Europe, and even of the United States and Canada, our figures don't compare very well. We're actually a laggard. We're leaners, if you like, in terms of climate action in the global community. So, we're really dragging the chain."
The Director of the advocacy group Catholic Earth Care Australia Jacquie Remond has also signed the letter.
"Unfortunately the way of life with burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon into the atmosphere is causing problems for everybody, particularly the most vulnerable species and the most vulnerable humans who have contributed the least to the problem and it means that those who are emitting more of the fossil fuels and actually extracting it from the Earth have a greater responsibility to act for the sake of future generations, but also those who are alive at this time on our planet."
Ms Remond says when it comes to climate change, religious teachings are aligned with the leading scientific data.
"The science essentially points us to the fact that we are pushing the Earth's atmospheric balance of carbon beyond the usual for keeping an equilibrium for our current biosphere to be in an inhabitable space as the species as we know it. We bring that together with sacred scripture and Catholic social teaching in the Catholic tradition and that guides us to see a way forward, which means we need to change our lifestyles and our actions and we need to call on the whole community to participate, especially our leaders."
Thea Ormerod from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change says she is not optimistic about getting a positive response from the nation's senior politicians.
"They're unfortunately not very responsive. I wish I could say otherwise, but we sort of feel that we have to say what's important and what's on our minds. This is a democracy and we're going to keep trying to act as though it is a democracy, but we're not seeing much responsiveness. One lives in hope."
