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The Turnbull government's newest science adviser says Australia needs to accelerate its switch from coal to renewable energy.
Dr Alan Finkel, an engineer and neuroscientist. said on his first day as Chief Scientist on Monday that he wanted to put sustainable energy on the agenda to help Australians weigh up different options.
While Australia had already invested trillions of dollars in wind and solar energy, it will take decades for them to reach significant scale, he said.
"You need to start as soon as you can and we have started, but we need to accelerate that effort," Dr Finkel said.
All countries also needed to speed up their progress in order to achieve the global target reached at Paris climate talks last year of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
"I think the obligation on us and every country in the world is to move as quickly as we can towards zero emissions electricity," Dr Finkel said.
The self-described "techno-optimist" who previously founded a scientific instrument company, said he would advise the government to invest in scientific research that helps make "zero emissions technologies" more reliable and cheaper.
Dr Finkel hoped Australia would increase its investment in storing solar and wind energy, for example in batteries. This could take a number of forms including subsidies, direct investment, sponsored research and tax incentives, he said.
"The problem is, it doesn't matter how much wind and solar you have it's intermittent...Without storage of some kind, wind and solar will never deliver on their full potential."
It comes as a study by carbon consultancy firm RepuTex on Monday found that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions were expected to continue rising past 2020 at one of the worst growth rates in the developed world.
Dr Finkel would not be drawn on the government's plans to axe its Australian Renewable Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - which invest government funds in low emissions technology, but indicated that both were part of the "innovation landscape", which he would advocate for future funding.
Some of his first tasks as Chief Scientist include conducting a review of tax incentives for research and development, and helping develop a 10-15-year plan for science and innovation, building on the agenda the government released in November.
Dr Finkel, who has publicly advocated for nuclear power to help reduce carbon emissions, insisted on Monday that he was "technology agnostic", and that it would be "inappropriate" to strongly advocate for Australia to adopt it.
He maintained it should be considered as an alternative energy source saying, "if we have a vision for a low-emissions power supply, nuclear energy is one of the ones that could help us get there more quickly than others and give us the continuous delivery capability of zero emissions."
