The Coalition’s interim target of a 26-28 per cent cut in emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, is less than other comparable countries and the ALP’s election promise of a target of 43 per cent. More importantly, it is not consistent with keeping the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees, seen as a threshold for mitigating the most serious impacts of climate change.

Rather than taking the lead in cutting emissions, the government too often sides with the fossil fuel lobby. Ms McKenzie is a key supporter of the NSW coal industry. When tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes last week launched an $8 billion takeover bid for AGL, which involved closing down the company’s coal-fired power plants more quickly than planned, Energy Minister Angus Taylor described the plan as “a significant risk to electricity consumers”.

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The government is missing a huge opportunity. Australia’s resources of wind and solar put it in an ideal position to reduce the role of coal and gas in its power grid, unlike Europe which is desperately trying to end its dependence on imported Russian gas.

Alongside faster reductions in emissions, Australia must better prepare for the inevitable natural disasters that lie ahead.

NSW will have to invest more in emergency response infrastructure. Many vulnerable people trapped in their homes by rising waters waited too long to be rescued. Governments tend to over-promise but under-deliver when it comes to promising emergency financial assistance.

Around flood-prone areas, the government faces a difficult choice of whether to invest in more dams and levees or whether to abandon some areas and offer help to residents to move to higher ground.

The flood waters will recede in the next few days but the myriad threats posed to Australia by climate change will only compound for decades.

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