Fresh analysis by the newly created - and independent - Climate Targets Panel indicates that even if the targets Australia adopted were met this would fall well short of contributing to meeting the overall Paris goals.

Australia is only committed to reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, well short of the targets adopted by many other countries.

The government also only backed away from a plan to use controversial "carry-over Kyoto credits" to meet this target in December.

The Climate Targets Panel, whose members include scientists Will Steffen, Lesley Hughes and Malt Meinshausen, and former Liberal leader John Hewson, said Australia needed to reduce emissions by at least 50 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, and to net-zero by 2045, to do its bit to keep global warming under two degrees.

Australia has, in short, set itself a very soft target and, until quite recently, was prepared to use some rather dubious methodology to achieve it.

But that is not the worst of it. Two degrees was the upper limit set under the Paris agreement. The preferred target was less than 1.5 degrees. If Australia is to do its bit to meet this target it has to reduce greenhouse emissions by 74 per cent by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2035.

Panel member Professor Lesley Hughes said if the nation had taken decisive action sooner it would not be in this situation; the failure to drive emissions down earlier means if Australia is to make a meaningful contribution it needs to make much deeper cuts.

While the panel's findings are very different to the Coalition's targets they are based on the same methodology used by the government's own Climate Change Authority in 2014.

The Climate Target Council's disturbing findings were made public at the same time US President Joe Biden was signing a suite of executive orders to ramp up America's climate change response.

President Biden, who campaigned on net-zero emissions by 2050, plans to hold an international climate conference in the first 100 days of his term. This is expected to put additional pressure on the Coalition to commit to the same net-zero target date.

Ms Hughes, and other emissions reduction advocates, have linked the government's reluctance to go further to the influence of ultra-conservative climate change deniers in both the Liberal and the National parties.

This casts fresh light on former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce's very public complaint the Coalition "marriage of convenience" was not working well for his party in that MPs have not been gifted major portfolios.

While venting may be good for the soul, Mr Joyce's complaints focus attention on the lack of talent and sensibility to broader public opinion in the Nationals' ranks.

Leaving aside Michael McCormack's patchy performance as acting Prime Minister while Scott Morrison was on leave, it is no secret many Nationals MPs are out of step with majority community views on energy and climate change, and are more concerned with the politics of self-interest than the national interest.

Ms Hughes argues that unless this mindset changes in the very near future Australia may soon find itself open to international sanctions and censure given recent developments in the US and elsewhere.

She has a good point. The time to act is now. Tomorrow may well be too late.