Loading Mr Kean said Professor Durrant-Whyte may examine the option of nuclear energy, as recently spruiked by former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, but "we don't have a competitive advantage on nuclear". Instead, Mr Kean flagged green hydrogen as a potential climate solution but said he did not yet have Professor Durrant-Whyte's interim report, which was expected by the end of January. Commonwealth chief scientist Alan Finkel has also pushed green hydrogen - hydrogen fuel created by renewable energy sources - at a recent meeting of state and federal ministers. Mr Kean said NSW would forge ahead with its goal for zero net emissions by 2050 and chasing the economic opportunities of a low-carbon world economy regardless of what the federal government or the other states were doing.

"I want to make sure NSW is not left behind the rest of the world," he said. "Doing nothing is not an option - the rest of the world is moving, we can't afford to stand still." The report will also identify any barriers to the development of the sector and the role of government in fostering the emerging export opportunities. "Government played an important role in setting up our export industries when it came to coal, so too do we have an important role in setting up our export industries when it comes to cleaner, greener, cheaper energy," Mr Kean said. Mr Kean said NSW was already getting "a taste" of climate change with the bushfire crisis but he was aware that reducing NSW or Australia's emissions would not stop extreme weather events. "Global warming is a global problem but we need to do our bit," he said. "We're also well placed to help other economies decarbonise which will have a dramatic impact on the weather events that Australia faces."

Loading Mr Kean said he had a good reaction when he spoke up on climate change earlier in December, saying that "no one could deny" the link between the bushfires and global warming. "I can't tell you how many Liberals came up to me and just said 'thank God, we've been so scared to speak up on this issue'. This should not be a partisan political issue," Mr Kean said. "We need to remove ideology from the discussion and get back to the science and economics. "There should be no debate that climate change is happening but there can be plenty of debate about what we do about it. We can't even get out of first gear, we're still talking about whether it's real or not, and it's just stupid."

Loading Mr Kean said as a Liberal, he believed "economically rational, market-based solutions" were the best way to tackle greenhouse emissions. The Herald has flagged the NSW government will set interim targets for emissions reduction and is expected to make further announcements on carbon abatement policies in 2020. Distancing himself from some of his federal Coalition colleagues, Mr Kean said large-scale nuclear energy was not the answer. In a video posted to Twitter on Christmas Eve, Mr Joyce said climate change was happening but was controlled by a "higher power". He later said we should consider nuclear power to drive lower emissions.