Two leaders shared a Climate Week stage, but their speeches revealed contrasting approaches to climate leadership. Albanese spoke about Australia’s climate efforts; Miliband set out how governments must prepare for climate threats. The question is where Australia’s plan is.

Put someone who hasn’t got a clue up against a person with talent, and the incapacity becomes quickly obvious. That was the case when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was joined by the UK foreign secretary to give the official launch speeches at Climate Week in New York on 21 September.

Held during the United Nations General Assembly meetings when most heads of state turn up and perform, NYC Climate Week is the most significant annual political event in the global climate networking diary.

Prime Minister Albanese was listed as giving the opening keynote speech at Climate Week, titled by the organisers as ‘Climate security is national security’. Joining him was Ed Miliband, UK foreign secretary and until recently climate minister, and a person who does get the climate challenge.

The basic problem with Albanese’s speech was that it was almost completely off-topic. Neither of the terms ‘climate security’ and ’national security’ was mentioned, nor the ideas underlying climate-security risk analysis. And there was just one reference to security: “This is why we continue to back Pacific-led climate action and innovation to protect livelihoods, security and cultures.”

But the government does not have a credible Pacific climate-security strategy, and the continued harking to Australia’s magnanimous role in the Pacific does not wash. Maina Vakafua Talia, Tuvalu’s climate and environment minister, says Australia’s aid “doesn’t really matter” next to Australia’s fossil fuel subsidies.

And on the biggest near-term threat to regional climate security, there was also just a single mention: “In Australia, spring has arrived. With a record-breaking El Niño forecast, Australia and the Pacific nations are preparing for a potential (sic) summer of extreme heat, bushfires and floods.” No mention of drought or food in/security, yet Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippines are three of the most El Niño-vulnerable states.

In Papua New Guinea, drought is already leading to food........

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