Every day it becomes clearer that the world needs to amp up its renewable energy efforts as the earth continues to heat up due to climate change.
A report from the Climate Commission, The Critical Decade 2013: Climate Change Science, Risks and Responses, outlined the consequences of climate change to the Australian environment.
We've already seen Australia heat right up in recent years, with the duration and frequency of heatwaves increasing, and hot days becoming even hotter.
Increasingly high temperatures are a danger for Australians as heat causes more deaths than any other type of extreme weather event in Australia.
The Climate Commission labelled the current decade as critical for tackling climate change and for turning around the rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
The report states that "most of the known fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground", in order to keep the climate at bay.
So how do we get around powering society without using up more and more fossil fuels? Renewable energy such as solar power is obviously the answer.
They're an extremely practical way of generating power, with Australia's vast sunlight resources as well as the potential for more wind energy.
This would reduce reliance on fossil fuels which serve to increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Posted by Mike Peacock