Loading The former US vice-president shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work in raising the profile of climate change and, in 2019, is the public face of Climate Reality, a group he helped found to continue the work. On Friday, he discussed climate change policies with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whom he heaped praise upon. He was in Brisbane for a three-day Climate Reality workshop during a week in which Queensland released a discussion paper describing the risks and opportunities from climate change policies. The report highlighted opportunities for electric vehicles, battery storage and bio-fuels in Queensland as well as grave risks from rising atmospheric temperatures on areas like the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef and the state's weather-sensitive agriculture sector.

Mr Gore said he was more optimistic than he had been on earlier trips to Australia, a country described in his almost two-hour slide presentation as a heat-stressed land at renewed risk of "high-intensity rain bombs" dumping huge amounts of rain and hail and bushfires causing significant damage to homes, buildings, crops and livestock. Loading But Mr Gore could see renewable energy change beginning at the state government level. "I showed a slide (on Wednesday) showing a world-class electric-vehicle-charging station manufactured here in Brisbane," he said. That Brisbane company was Tritium Energy, recently listed as one of the world's 10 most innovative companies and part of Queensland's emerging electric super highways. It was an example, Mr Gore said, of companies looking to the post-fossil-fuel era.

"Indeed there will be hundreds of thousands of jobs created here in Australia once the decision is finalised to make Australia the renewable energy superpower of the 21st century," he said. Mr Gore's trip to Brisbane came after a federal election in which the Labor Party, widely predicted to take power, was smashed in Queensland where it ended up with just six MPs out of 30 electorates. One reason suggested for this was the lack of clear position by the federal Labor Party on Adani Mining's proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin. Mr Gore, as a renewable energy enthusiast, unsurprisingly did not support the proposed mine. He said the mine would not be economically viable, despite Adani insisting it was ready to put in $2 billion to build the mine and the rail line connecting to an Aurizon rail line and on to the Abbot Point port.

"Will Mr Adani really put up $2 billion of his own money for a business plan that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever?" Mr Gore asked. "I rather doubt it." But he agreed jobs in regional areas were an issue that should not be ignored. In a renewable energy future, Mr Gore said, the job types would be different. In April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures estimating there were 17,740 full-time equivalent jobs in the renewable energy industries in 2017-18, up 3890 from the previous year and the highest level since 2010-11 The increase was driven in large part by construction of large-scale solar systems and roof-top solar workers, the figures showed.

"The future emerges regardless of what we think about it," Mr Gore said, when asked how the issue of potential jobs from Queensland coal mines should be explained to regional towns. "Economic and technological advances are consigning coal to the past, and not to the future." Mr Gore said Queensland owed a debt of gratitude to its coal miners. "These coal miners and the employees of coal-burning utilities have helped to build the foundations on which all of us construct our own futures," he said. "We owe them. We owe them a debt of gratitude. We owe them good new jobs which are safer, cleaner and better paying than the ones they used to have."

Mr Gore acknowledged the world's carbon emissions were still rising and the atmospheric temperature had increased by 0.8 degrees, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. "That is because we are still at the earlier stages of this transition," he said. Mr Gore referred to US economist Rudi Dornborsch, who advised him about managing a crisis. "He once said things take longer to happen than you think they will and then they happen much faster than you thought they could," he said. "Then the change comes rushing in."

Mobile phones. Electric vehicles. Rooftop solar panels. LED lighting. His list of examples went on. As for his own country, Mr Gore did not have much faith Donald Trump, the current occupant of the oval-shaped office he failed to reach, could manage US carbon emissions. World atmospheric temperature rises showing a rise of 0.8 degrees centigrade. Credit:Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US government. "I had conversations with him after the election and after he went in to the White House," he said. "But if you want some fresh evidence of how pointless it is to talk with him, just look at his own recounting of his climate change conversation (this week) where Prince Charles bravely - indeed heroically - ventured with him this week."