If the outlook from climate change is as bleak as predicted, Australia should consider nuclear power, says the Coalition's federal spokesman on agriculture, John Cobb.

‘‘If there is such a panic about the world coming to an end, why don’t they look at the obvious and use uranium instead of coal,’’ he told horticulturalists gathered at Sydney Olympic Park for the NSW Farmers Association annual conference yesterday.

Mr Cobb, a farmer, a National Party member from Parkes, and a former head of the association, told the

‘‘If everything is coming to an end because of global warming, there is such an obvious answer to deal with it. Nuclear power certainly doesn’t have the emission issues.’’

‘‘France has something like 80 per cent of its power generation nuclear, Germany is almost up to that … [and] the Chinese are putting heaps of nuclear in. Australia must start talking about this.’’