“Just to give you a very practical example, right here in Australia the Murray Darling food basin will be decimated. Folks think food prices at the checkout are bad now. They ain’t seen nothing yet.

“Entire island nations neighbouring Australia will also be wiped out, and it is Australia which will be the front and centre in resettling entire national populations.

“My point is that the logic is unassailable, a bold domestic climate forward economic reform agenda in Australia [is necessary] both to seize the huge opportunities, but also to avoid climate carnage.”

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He said advances were made at the global climate talks in November, where the world agreed to transition from fossil fuels, but that the pace needed to step up.

“I welcome Australia’s reinvigorated climate efforts and legislated policy progress in recent years, and I said to the PM and the Minister Bowen precisely that.

“But it’s also clear that the world needs countries like Australia to take climate action and ambition to the next level, and it’s firmly in the interests of every Australian that they do so.”

Under the Paris Accord nations agreed to set their own emissions reductions targets, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, in order to set the world on a path to holding warming to 1.5 degrees. NDCs are updated every five years, and many nations, including Australia, are in the process of setting new, more ambitious targets to be delivered next year.

Stiell says so much climate action is needed that NDCs need to be seated in wholesale economic reform across entire economies.

“As a highly skilled, largely knowledge-driven economy, Australia is perfectly placed to become a global leader in renewables and climate innovation.”

He said the decarbonisation of the global economy was now inevitable and would be the greatest economic transformation of our time, and an economic boon to nations that positioned themselves to take advantage of it.

But he acknowledged the costs would also be staggering. In a recent speech in Baku in Azerbaijan, where the next global climate talks will be held, he said that by one estimate $US2.4 trillion needed to be invested each year in renewable energy, adaptation, and other climate-related issues in developing countries excluding China.

Stiell met with Bowen and Albanese on Thursday before visiting Port Kembla with Bowen on Friday. His next stop will be Fiji, where he will meet with regional finance ministers.