In response to the latest report by the world's most authoritative climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Australian Conservation Foundation's climate program manager Gavan McFadzean said:
"Overnight the world's top climate scientists issued a sobering warning about the severe impacts that are happening now due to accelerating climate change, including acute heat stress, dangerous floods, dwindling food supply and fragile water security.
"The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, 'coal and other fossil fuels are choking humanity - delay means death'. ACF supports his call on nations to phase out coal fleets by 2030 and honour the Glasgow pledge to improve and update climate targets.
"The IPCC report issues a challenge to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese to set a target to slash climate pollution by at least half this decade with the policies to get there.
"Without faster emission cuts, more and more Australians will face worsening extreme weather events, like devastating floods, longer droughts and more ferocious bushfires."
Together We Can member Dr Michelle Hamrosi, a GP from Broulee, NSW, said:
"This latest IPCC report highlights the urgency of the situation, especially in terms of our physical and mental health.
"Climate change is a health crisis. This report shows us this in clear terms.
"Failing to address climate change over the past few decades has already harmed our health and caused loss of lives and livelihoods.
"As some climate impacts are already locked in, doctors like me will bear witness to the rising harm and death toll in the decades to come.
"I don't want to see my patients and community suffer when clear solutions to this crisis are at hand. I am calling on our government to act urgently because our health and livelihoods depend on it.
"Ambitious and meaningful emissions reduction will give bushfire and flood affected communities like mine hope for a healthy future."
Together We Can is a movement of Australians, groups and businesses from all over the country who are raising their voices for stronger action on climate change this decade.
