One key objective of the summit will be for nations to agree on the "Paris Rulebook" that is aimed at guiding nations to fulfil their promised reductions and to make those cuts more transparent and comparable.

Loading

A second aim is to conclude the so-called Talanoa Dialogue to assess how pledges are tracking in terms of meeting the Paris goal of keeping global warming to well under two degrees, compared with pre-industrial times.

Current pledges, even if implemented, would likely see warming closer to three degrees, resulting in worsening climate extremes including the demise of the great bulk of the world's coral reefs.

While the government has sought to stress Australia's carbon emissions as a share of economic output and per capita were at 28-year lows, new analysis by Climate Analytics shows pollution rates are more than twice the average of G20 nations.

Emissions intensity, for instance, in Australia in 2015 was higher than the US and twice that of the European Union, the emissions tracking group found.

"With current policies, Australia is not projected to catch up – indeed, it is projected to be overtaken by China by 2030 and stay far behind more efficient and less polluting economies such as Japan [and] the EU," Climate Analytics said.

Loading

“The latest round of major international climate change negotiations could prove embarrassing for Australia, given we are not on track to meet even our weak target for 2030," Kelly O’Shanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said.

“But embarrassment could be the least of our problems. The Australian Government’s addiction to coal may result in diplomatic and trade implications if Australia refuses to do our fair share to limit global warming."

Labor's climate spokesman Mark Butler told Parliament on Tuesday that the "world is now facing a climate emergency" that would unfold over coming decades.

"Carbon pollution has been rising since this government came to office and is projected to continue to rise all the way to 2030, which is as far as the government's projections go," he said, adding that "we are now pretty much the only major advanced economy where carbon pollution and greenhouse gases are going up rather than coming down".