LINDA MOTTRAM: As the students took to the streets, the latest National Greenhouse Gas Inventory was released showing Australia's emissions continuing to rise, up 0.6 of a per cent per cent in the year to June and rising 4.7 per cent since June 2013.

That news comes as a major new report on climate and health in Australia warns that policy inaction is threatening lives, as climate change drives more heat waves, changes infectious disease patterns and, the authors say, drives mental health issues.

Dr Tony Capon is one of the authors. He's Professor of Planetary Health at the University of Sydney.

I asked him first whether he supported today's student protests about climate.

TONY CAPON: Absolutely. I mean, when we launched this new report the most engaged people at the university were the medical students.

They're very well informed young people and in fact, in some ways our politicians are as not as well informed about these issues as they should be.

LINDA MOTTRAM: And so protest is a way to do this? The Prime Minister was very pointed about saying the students should be in school learning.

TONY CAPON: Well, absolutely. I mean in a liberal democracy, an open country, we want young people to be engaged in the process.

LINDA MOTTRAM: So let's get to the report. The headline is that Australian policy inaction is threatening lives. In what ways?

TONY CAPON: Yes, absolutely Linda. Look, many people don't understand that climate change is a health issue. People's health is already being affected by climate change. It's not a future issue.

Heatwaves in Australia are the deadliest natural hazard already and climate change is amplifying the frequency, intensity and duration of those heatwaves. They are longer and hotter than ever before.

So, in the future we can only expect more health impacts unless we change.

LINDA MOTTRAM: You mentioned heatwaves, what are some of the other major health impacts that we are beginning to see.

TONY CAPON: Well, at the moment, you know, heatwaves and bushfires in North Queensland amplified in frequency and intensity, very severe rain dumps in Sydney this week.

Last week dust storms and the health impacts, asthma, in Sydney.

Recently in Victoria the thunder storm asthma epidemic, very severe health implications.

Changing patterns of infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases and new information in our report about mental health and climate change.

LINDA MOTTRAM: What's the connection there?

TONY CAPON: Well, one concerning connection relates to drought. Here on the eastern side of Australia we're having a very prolonged and deep drought. This is drying out the soils across rural areas leading to declines in agricultural productivity, declines in the incomes of farmers and impacts on their mental well-being.

We're concerned about rates of depression, suicide in Australian farming communities under drought and in other parts of the world.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Now Australian ministers will say to you, you know, we are acting to deal with the effects of the drought including the mental health effects. Are they doing enough?

TONY CAPON: Well, I don't think they are and indeed, from what I see, farmers are speaking out and asking for more action on climate change as well.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Is it the climate connection that governments are failing to make?

TONY CAPON: Yes, I think they seem to want to deny that there is climate change rather than get on and make changes in public policy.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Now the report that you and your colleagues have put together also includes a paper with policy advice to government. What specific policy prescriptions are there for government?

TONY CAPON: One major thing in this report is the urgent need to decarbonise the Australian energy system and the reason that's important for health is that we will realise what we call co-benefits for health if we reduce the amount of coal we're burning in Australia to make energy.

So if we transition to renewable energy in places like the Hunter Valley, the La Trobe Valley in Victoria, there will be less health impacts from the toxic pollution from those coal-fired power stations.

That's a very significant health benefit in this country, if we make that transition.

LINDA MOTTRAM: The Morrison Government insists that it is doing sufficient to meet its Paris greenhouse gas reduction commitments. It insists on that.

Do you agree?

TONY CAPON: I don't. It is just not enough. It is not fast enough and it is clear that the Government seems to be in a mode of denial.

Frankly, both of the big parties in this country have been inactive on this issue for the last decade and that's the clear message of our report.

As you know, the title of the report, policy inaction on climate change in Australia is threatening lives, not just in this country but around the world.

LINDA MOTTRAM: There was a very large report to the US government this week which President Trump utterly denied having any validity but it was, you know, thousands of pages, dozens of federal departments, hundreds of scientists.

One of the issues it addressed was health and it said in the mid-west of the United States alone, extreme temperatures will lead to an extra 2,000 pre-mature deaths per year by 2090.

Is that the sort of figure that could translate to the Australian experience without action as well?

TONY CAPON: Look, absolutely. I mean clearly the United States is a bigger country but proportionately, we'll see those sort of numbers in this country.

Australia is a highly vulnerable country.

Another thing that comes through in this report is the concerns we have about Australia continuing to export large amounts of coal.

One of the findings of this work is that the number of premature deaths from the burning of coal around the world every year, is about 460,000 deaths. That's a remarkably large figure - 460,000 premature deaths around the world from the burning of coal.

Now we must also remember that Australia is one of the biggest exporters of coal in the world.

In fact, we produce about 7 per cent of the world's coal so when you do the arithmetic, it is likely that Australian coal burnt in other countries is causing more than 30,000 deaths per annum around the world.

That's a very substantial ethical issue for Australia.

LINDA MOTTRAM: And so do you think governments in Australia are open to this message and if they're not, what does that mean for this country's future?

TONY CAPON: Well, I think it is a great concern if they're not open. I would hope that when new information like this becomes available as we release the report yesterday, when elected officials have time to digest the implications of this report, I hope that they act on it.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Tony Capon, thank you very much for joining us.

TONY CAPON: Thanks very much.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Professor Tony Capon, and the paper which is part of a global initiative by The Lancet is published in the medical journal of Australia.