Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price has argued some of the world's leading climate scientists are "drawing a long bow" in calling for an end to coal power in a bid to limit global warming.

Key points: United Nations' IPCC warns that global gas emissions must reach zero by 2050 to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees

United Nations' IPCC warns that global gas emissions must reach zero by 2050 to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees Environment Minister suggests the 91 scientists behind the report got it wrong

Environment Minister suggests the 91 scientists behind the report got it wrong The Federal Government maintains it will meet its commitment to the Paris climate agreement

In a special report released yesterday, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said global greenhouse gas emissions must reach zero by about 2050 in order to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The authors warned that if warming was allowed to reach 2C, the world would risk hitting "tipping points", setting a course towards uncontrollable temperatures.

And they said the use of coal for electricity generation would have to drop to between 0 and 2 per cent of current usage.

Speaking on the ABC's AM program in her first broadcast interview since taking up the role, Ms Price argued that: "Coal does form a very important part of the Australian energy mix".

"We make no apology for the fact that our focus at the moment is getting electricity prices down," she said.

"Every year, there's new technology with respect to coal and what its contribution is to emissions.

"To say that it's got to be phased out by 2050 is drawing a very long bow."

The Minister, who used to work in the mining sector, suggested the 91 scientists behind the IPCC report had got it wrong.

"I just don't know how you could say by 2050 that you're not going to have technology that's going to enable good, clean technology when it comes to coal," she said.

"That would be irresponsible of us to be able to commit to that."

Sorry, this video has expired Officials from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say limiting global warming is not impossible.

Price argues Australia can still meet carbon targets

The Federal Government maintains it will meet its commitment under the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions by 28 per cent from 2005 levels, even though the IPCC report suggested it would need to be closer to 45 per cent.

"Back in 2017, we had a review of our climate change policies, and they were found adequate in terms of us meeting our 2020 target from Kyoto — we know we are going to meet that target 3 and we're very comfortable we're going to meet the 2030 target," Ms Price told AM.

The Minister argued that reduction was achievable, even though the latest data shows Australia's carbon pollution is at its highest levels since 2011.

"It showed that over the last 12 months there's been a slight increase, but the most important thing in that report is that electricity emissions have declined by 13.9 per cent in the year to March 2018," Ms Price said.

"We know that emissions per capita were at their lowest level in 28 years, and emissions per capita in the year to March 2018 have fallen 36 per cent since 1990.

"The slight increase in emissions was largely driven by the LNG production for export, which the volumes increased by some 25.4 per cent.

"I don't accept that we don't have the right mix of policies, and I don't accept that we're not going to meet our targets."

Labor seized upon the IPCC report yesterday to claim the Coalition continued to be wracked with infighting over climate policy, saying the conservative rump of the party, led by former prime minister Tony Abbott, continued to dictate that the Government embraces coal.