An unprecedented grouping of 126 Nobel Prize winners including the Dalai Lama and ANU Vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt are imploring the major G7-plus world leaders meeting this week to act on climate change, warning of 'colossal risks' to humanity.
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It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison warns, ahead of the summit, that Australia is going to chart its own path to net zero.
This Friday's G7 meeting of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Italy in the United Kingdom is being expanded this year to also include leaders from India, South Korea and Australia, with the new grouping termed the G7-plus.
So, Mr Morrison is among the leaders targeted by the statement which has been led by Professor Schmidt.
The Nobel Laureates and others say the next decade is crucial for climate change action as "time is the natural resource in shortest supply".
"Without transformational action this decade, humanity is taking colossal risks with our common future," reads the Nobel grouping statement.
"Societies risk large-scale, irreversible changes to Earth's biosphere and our lives as part of it."
The large Nobel Prize grouping includes climate science experts, Nobel Prize winning scientists and Peace Prize laureates, including Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Australian immunologist Professor Peter Doherty, the Dalai Lama and Australian gastroenterologist Professor Barry Marshall.
Ahead of the G7-plus summit, the Prime Minister has attempted to reframe the federal government's climate change policies, but he is still not committing to lifting Australia's greenhouse gas emission targets.
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"As I've said previously, Australia is on the pathway to net zero," he is expected to tell the Perth USAsia Centre.
"Our goal is to get there as soon as possible, preferably by 2050, through technology that enables and transforms our industries, not taxes that eliminate them and the jobs and livelihoods they support, especially in our region."
Mr Morrison insists Australia should chart its own path, a nod to his favoured technology-focused approach.
"It's important that nation states be accountable for charting their own path to net zero based on their unique economic structures and energy sources," he is expected to say.
"Australia does not support setting sectoral targets or timeframes for decarbonising particular parts of our economy or setting false deadlines for phasing out specific energy sources."
Mr Morrison says he understands the world is moving towards a global net-zero energy economy by 2050, however the Australian government has reservations.
"It's not an argument about climate change," he is expected to say. "It's about how Australia best advances our interests as part of a world that is dealing with climate change. It's not about if or when. Protecting and advancing Australia's interests is about the how."
"How we engage with this, indeed how we succeed and proposer with this, without putting at risk our manufacturing and heavy industries, the jobs of Australians, especially in regional Australia, without imposing higher costs on Australian families and how we keep the lights on, and not surrender advantage. That is our interest and that is my agenda."
Mr Morrison leaves Perth on Thursday for Singapore before heading to Europe for the G7-plus summit. He'll be under pressure from other leaders, who are more progressive over climate change such as US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to join the global shift towards a net-zero energy economy by 2050.
The Nobel Laureates are now adding their considerable voices.
"Time is running out to prevent irreversible changes," they said the statement.
"The long-term potential of humanity depends upon our ability today to value our common future.
"Ultimately, this means valuing the resilience of societies and the resilience of Earth's biosphere."
Mr Morrison is expected to meet with President Biden face-to-face for the first time on the sidelines of the summit.
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