The Victorian government wants to join forces with New South Wales and South Australia to press the federal government for more action on climate change in the wake of record or near-record temperatures in the three states in 2014.



Victoria’s environment minister, Lisa Neville, said she was seeking “urgent” talks with the NSW and SA governments to forge a united front against Tony Abbott’s stance on climate change.

Neville told Guardian Australia the states would seek greater clarity on how the federal Emissions Reduction Fund, which will provide grants to businesses, would work. The federal government’s leadership on climate change would also be questioned.

“I’m looking to have urgent conversations with NSW and South Australia on the role they can play with us,” she said. “We’ll look at whether there’s a shared view on emissions reduction and also national advocacy so we can put climate change back into public debate.

“Each state has a responsibility to push the federal government in this area. National action will have the most impact on climate change, so we need a unified voice to get the federal government, first of all, to acknowledge climate change.

“The Abbott government has, unfortunately, walked away from its responsibility to act on climate change. We’d prefer strong national and international action, but if we have to play a leadership role in Victoria, we will do that.

“We need to put pressure on the federal government as well as build a proper community conversation about climate change again.”

Neville, who will have her first meeting with the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, this month, said the federal Coalition needed to resolve the “mess” surrounding its attempts to cut the national renewable energy target and ensure its ERF grants were spent effectively to bring down emissions.

Victoria’s Labor government, which came into power in November, is formulating its own climate change strategy, which may include the reinstatement of a state-based emissions reduction target. But there is no plan to phase out Victoria’s highly polluting brown coal generators.

South Australia’s renewable energy investment has forged ahead of Victoria and NSW, at a time when all states are experiencing a trend of rising temperatures.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate report, released this week, showed that NSW had its warmest year on record in 2014, with Victoria and South Australia both experiencing their second warmest years on record.

The NSW government, while keen to not publicly criticise its Coalition counterpart in Canberra, has indicated that it wants stronger action on climate change. A NSW Coalition source said: “We are the NSW government, we believe in climate change.”

The NSW environment minister, Rob Stokes, said: “We strongly believe in protecting the vulnerable by providing the community with the best available science and energy efficiency solutions.

“We are also using this information to plan for the future delivery of infrastructure and vital services such as health and emergency services. We believe it is an important duty for a responsible government to help communities understand future risk.”

“The NSW government also has a renewable energy action plan to increase the proportion of renewable energy in NSW and has made its position on the renewable energy target clear.”

Stokes said the NSW government had spent $3m on climate predictions out to 2070, to help the state prepare for change.

The federal government has stressed that it accepts the overwhelming science of human-influenced climate change and says its Direct Action climate plan will ensure Australia cuts its emissions by 5% by 2020 on 2000 levels, although the Climate Change Authority has expressed doubt over this.

In its first year in power, the federal Coalition scrapped carbon pricing, disbanded or attempted to disband a number of climate and clean energy agencies and is involved in on-and-off negotiations with Labor over its desire to limit Australia’s energy mix to 20% of renewables and no more.

Hunt’s office did not respond to a request for comment.