Australia understands the dangers of global warming and the urgency of climate action as much as any other country, Anthony Albanese has said in a keynote speech ahead of the United Nations general assembly.

Speaking at the opening of the Climate Week event at the United Nations in New York on Monday, the prime minister said Australians had experienced the impact of climate change up close with a series of disastrous bushfires and floods in the past decades.

People had faced up to the adversity, he said, but now it was the turn of politicians to match their “bravery” and take the strong action needed to try to tackle the problem.

“We need to come together, to meet the problem head on,” he told the assembly.

“There’s no avoiding the scale of our responsibility – or the cost of inaction.”

Australia understood the important role it must play and the need to back
”something positive” and to move forward and “build a better future for the next generation”.

His government had set an “ambitious but achievable” target to reduce emissions by 62- 70% on 2005 levels by 2035 and, with a mixture of renewable power backed by gas, Australia “will get there” he said.

“We are now a leader in home battery installation, with Australians installing ten thousand batteries each week – more than half a million in the past year.”

He said Australia was also helping Pacific countries hard-hit by the climate crisis including A$100m towards the Pacific Resilience Facility.

In addition, the Australian government’s REnew Pacific Program was going towards climate resilient classrooms in Vanuatu and Fiji, to clean energy and water on one of Kiribati’s most remote islands. He claimed the program has “directly improved 300,000 lives”.