Emissions from Australia and United States are spiraling out of control. We need rapid deployment of clean energy such as wind and solar today. If the conference just throws research dollars to the coal industry to clean up their act in 15 to 20 years, we've missed an opportunity.

If Australia and the USA fail to commit to short-term and absolute pollution reductions through the use of currently available clean energy, a critical opportunity to address climate change will have been lost and the partnership will have failed.

The data released today by the Bureau of Meteorology adds to a huge body of scientific research that shows we no longer live in a natural climate.