Australia's emissions are already on track to be lower in 2020 than they were in 2000, Environment Minister Greg Hunt has said in response to the Pope's climate change warning.
The encyclical from Pope Francis called for urgent action to cut carbon emissions, by reducing fossil fuel use and developing renewable energy.
The Australian government has gone the other way, attacking wind farms for being "visually awful", noisy and potentially harmful.
But Mr Hunt said Australia was nonetheless already making a difference in reducing carbon emissions with its Emissions Reduction Fund.
"The government remains firmly committed and on track to meeting our 2020 target of five per cent below 2000 levels, equivalent to a 13 per cent emissions reduction below 2005 levels," a spokesperson told AAP on Thursday.
"And we are doing this without a job-destroying carbon tax."
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