GEOFF THOMPSON, REPORTER: For the first time in a decade, these paddocks are without crops on Peter Mailler's farm.

PETER MAILLER, FARMER: When I started farming we were relying on one good year in five and the last three years, this is our third miss.

GEOFF THOMPSON: It's too dry to plant chickpeas in these fields near Goondiwindi on the Queensland-New South Wales border.

It's not just due to the drought says Peter Mailler, but because of climate change too.

PETER MAILLER: Climate change is now causing me to have less confidence in the likelihood of getting a normal season and that's what we've witnessed since I started farming.

We've seen every extreme, we've seen since I started farming. Previous generations had never seen that and it's getting more extreme and so, yeah, we're at the point now of trying to decide whether we keep farming or we don't.

Every part of our system is about maximising efficiency of water.

GEOFF THOMPSON: A third generation farmer, Peter Mailler leases much of his 6,000 acre property.

Margins have always been tight on his rotating crops of wheat, chickpeas and broad beans.

PETER MAILLER: Everything we do is about trying to get a planting opportunity and these conditions are beyond our ability to manage. That's where we're at. So heat is a compounding factor on losing the moisture that we need to get the crop growing.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Is it your bet that it's going to get worse?

PETER MAILLER: Look, yeah, absolutely. My bet is that the high temperatures are here to stay and that is a serious threat to the way that we farm and how we manage that lack of rainfall.

GEOFF THOMPSON: He thinks climate change is now generating extremes beyond his vast experience to manage.

PETER MAILLER: You can't keep arguing that this is just a cycle. Yes, there are dry periods and yes, there are wetter periods, yes, there are warm periods and yes, there are cool periods but we have shifted the averages, the baselines have moved to the point now where we are unable to manage the impact of those extreme events in that set.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The farmers' trick bag has run out of tricks?

PETER MAILLER: We're running out of tricks. So agriculture is a gamble and every time temperatures rise and the impacts of climate change rolls down, the odds keep moving in favour of the house.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Droughts are on track to get worse, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A landmark report released yesterday said that if greenhouse gas emissions continue as they are the world will warm by 1.5 degrees by 2040.

SARAH PERKINS-KIRKPATRICK, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, UNSW: We've always experienced extreme events, however the evidence is we'll see more of those types of events in the future and relative to global warming those events will become more extreme.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a climate scientist, specialising in extreme heat events.

SARAH PERKINS-KIRKPATRICK: New South Wales is in the midst of a bad drought right now. Droughts like that, that come on quite quickly and are quite intense are more likely in a 2 degree warmer world, compared to a 1.5 degree warmer world and especially compared to now as well.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The IPCC says committed action, including phasing out coal by 2050, could prevent a much more damaging 2 degree rise.

There's no commitment to that from the Federal Government.

SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to consider things that I think will, A) ensure that we get electricity prices down when it comes to energy, and I'll always consider things that help us practically meet our environmental targets which is incredibly important to all Australians as well.

GEOFF THOMPSON: National Farmers' Federation (NFF) president, Fiona Simson, runs cattle near Tamworth in New South Wales.

FIONA SIMSON, NFF PRESIDENT: On this farm we have been here for 90 years and if we look back over the 90 years we've seen a series of droughts come and go.

Right now I think farmers certainly are looking at the climate change and the work that's being done on climate change and the heating of the earth and thinking about how that will affect them on farms.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The National Farmers' Federation says the question now is not whether climate change is real, but what to do about it.

FIONA SIMSON: Farmers look at science. We are very interested in science and fact and evidence and we think now there is plenty of evidence on the table that climate change is a factor that we're going to have to deal with here in Australia.

So let's make sure that we can incorporate it into our policies in a way that where we can continue to be productive and profitable, where we can continue to be sustainable.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Peter Mailler was a National Party voter until founding his own party to run against Barnaby Joyce in last December's New England by-election.

PETER MAILLER: We're not going to get a coherent policy around drought if we don't deal with climate. We have got no chance of getting a coherent policy around climate if people won't admit that there's something here that needs to be done.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Sick of waiting for leadership from Canberra, Peter Mailler takes 7.30 to see a solution of his own.

What about the argument that it doesn't really matter what Australia does, it's only if the rest of the world takes action that the climate would shift in the right direction?

PETER MAILLER: Yeah. So Australia's probably more exposed to the effects of climate change than a lot of other places, to be honest.

We already operate in some of the most volatile weather conditions in the world and climate change means those conditions are going to be more volatile and more extreme.

As an affluent first-world nation we have an obligation to show leadership in this space. If we don't show leadership and start to be proactive, then who will? It's pretty simple.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Peter's parents have built a solar farm on their property and are selling electricity back into the grid.

PETER MAILLER: It's producing enough power for about 1,370 homes. That's most of the homes in Goondiwindi which is literally just across the river.

There's some irony here because in spite of the Government restriction and obstruction and everything else that's going on, this investment's making money and it's good for mitigating climate.

So it ticks all the boxes and it's happening in spite of the politicians.

My farm on the other hand won't survive and can't be justified the way things are going at the moment. If we can't mitigate climate, then I seriously doubt that we'll be able to justify the investment in agriculture.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But you can make money out of this?

PETER MAILLER: Absolutely.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Better money?

PETER MAILLER: Better money, safer money, easier money doing this.

SARAH PERKINS-KIRKPATRICK: Certainly any sort of change will cost money in the short term but by far, if we do not mitigate climate change the costs in the future will be a lot worse.

PETER MAILLER: Politicians have to stop undermining science and the politics has to stop trumping the science.

We have to depoliticise the conversation because this shouldn't be about factions and power grabs.

This needs to be about the future for our kids.

LAURA TINGLE, PRESENTER: 7.30 again sought an interview with Environment Minister, Melissa Price, who is in charge of the nation's emissions policy but she was unavailable.