Australian coal exports 'equally responsible' for climate disasters: Ex-chief scientist Penny Sackett

Penny Sackett has also labelled Labor's 43 per cent 2030 emissions reduction target as "not sufficient", recommending it be increased before 2025-26.

Professor Sackett's call comes as unions renew their push for the creation of a national authority to support coal-mine workers and communities through the clean energy transition.

A Senate inquiry probing Labor's climate change bill has published submissions from Professor Sackett and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), ahead of its first public hearings later this week.

The bill would legislate Labor's 2030 target and net zero by 2050 ambition, task the Climate Change Authority with advising on future goals and require the minister to make an annual progress statement in the Federal Parliament.

It is expected to pass the Senate as soon as next month with the support of the Greens and key crossbenchers, in what is being described as a major breakthrough in the decades-long political conflict blamed for stymieing progress on tackling climate change.

Professor Sackett was the nation's top scientist between 2008-11, a period which featured a number of flashpoints in the climate wars - including the Greens' decision to sink the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme.

Now an honorary professor at Australian National University, Professor Sackett didn't want to dwell on the past and was only interested in discussing the future when contacted by The Canberra Times about her submission.

Professor Sackett said Australia had arrived at a "special moment" with newfound public and political enthusiasm for climate action, which she said presented the new government with an opportunity to raise its ambitions.

In her submission, she recommended a provision be added to Labor's bill requiring government authorities to consider a fossil fuel project's Scope 3 emissions during the assessment process.

That could include greenhouse gas emissions which are generated when Australian coal is shipped and combusted overseas.

Those aren't counted towards Australia's official emissions total, but Professor Sackett said the pollution was "equally responsible" for the Black Summer fires and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.

"Nature doesn't pay any attention to whether they're [greenhouse gases] emitted in China by burning Australian coal, or whether Australia burns the coal here ... it doesn't make any difference to nature," she told The Canberra Times.

"On a tonne-per-tonne basis, all of those emissions affect the Australian environment equally."

In her submission, Professor Sackett said the largest threat to Australia's environment, which was under the government's control, was the approval of new fossil fuel developments and expansions.

"The most significant undertaking by Australia to protect its people and its environment from increased calamitous climate change is to dramatically curtail or stop altogether new fossil fuel developments and extension in the country," the submission stated.

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Professor Sackett echoed other climate experts in describing Labor's 43 per cent target as inadequate.

She argued the government could aim for deeper emissions cuts because Australia was blessed with an abundance of wind and solar resources.

Meanwhile, the ACTU and a host of other trade unions used submissions to renew their calls for a new national authority to support resource sector workers as old industries wind down and emerging ones ramp up.

"Establishing an Energy Transition Authority is critical to ensuring that working people are at the centre of our response to climate change, and that the changes which will be required in our economy are not at the expense of working people, their families and their communities," ACTU president Michele O'Neil told The Canberra Times.

"The response to climate change is a huge opportunity to create secure jobs in new industries, but to capitalise on this opportunity we need coordination and long-term planning which a central authority could provide."

The Greens' election platform include a transition plan for resource reliant communities, which included a guarantee that workers would have a job at the same pay rate for 10 years after leaving the coal industry.

A spokesman for Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen didn't respond directly when asked if the government would consider either Professor Sackett or the unions' proposal.

"The Senate Committee will table a report based on the submissions and hearings relating to the Climate Change Bill in due course," he said.

"In the meantime, the Albanese government will continue implementing the Powering Australia plan it received a mandate for, and getting on with the job of climate and energy action which had been neglected for ten years."