Rallies are fertile grounds for society's fringe dwellers, and Sunday's National Day of Climate Action was no exception. GetUp!'s call to action was met by 60,000 members of the public – a figure that included The Socialist Alliance, The Green Left and an elderly gentleman brandishing a sign proclaiming "TONY ABBOT [sic] KILLS CHILDREN".

While GetUp!'s community-minded events are friendly across the political, economic and social spectrum, the vocal and sometimes extreme presence of partisan groups only serves to sway the middle ground in the other direction and undermine the common goal.

The monopolisation of such events by acute characters and groups does climate action a disservice. Groups like The Green Left and Socialist Alliance taking ownership of climate change serves to further Abbott and co's message that it's an issue of the left, of hippies and treehuggers, not a real issue for all Australians. By adopting climate change as a cause célèbre and ignoring other economic, social or political issues, extreme groups isolate the more conservative mainstream from climate action as an issue. Labor branding the ETS a tax also didn’t help the oft-cited “ordinary Australian” to see climate action as something to support as we move into the future.

Climate change’s image problem in Australia needs to give way to science and become accessible to more people across the board. In the 2013 Climate Change Performance Index, Australia was ranked as #40 in the world – more poorly than India, Egypt and Indonesia. World beaters Denmark and Sweden (ranked #4 and #5) have all accepted climate change as part of their national parlance, and have created a framework for the future.

Sweden has had a carbon tax since 1991, which allowed the sparsely-populated Scandinavian nation to cut its emissions by 9% between 1990 and 2006 – and still maintain economic growth of 44% in fixed prices. Since the 1980s, the Swedish public have been concerned about the effects of climate change; following the 1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s findings, Swedish authorities undertook massive changes to reflect the shift in thinking. In Sweden, every purchase of a green car is rewarded with a 10,000 kroner ($1,608 AUD) rebate; by 2020, Sweden aims to have cut its emissions by 40% and have 50% renewable energy. Along with Norway, the UK, Ethiopia, Indonesia and South Korea, Sweden has formed a new global initiative, The Global Commission on Economy and Climate.

So engrained is climate change action in Swedish thinking that the denial and skepticism that is commonplace in the Australian dialogue seem bizarre and untenable. Student Johan Robert, 23, was disbelieving when he first heard about Australia’s attitude towards climate change. “I saw [then foreign affairs minister] Kevin Rudd speak at the University [of Uppsala] in 2011, and was shocked to learn many Australians don’t believe in climate change. What is there to believe in? It’s science!”

The legitimacy of climate science has also been accepted in Sweden’s neighbour Denmark. The country best known for bike riding and fairy tales is also a world leader in renewable energy and climate action. In 2011, Denmark commissioned its Energy Strategy 2050 which involves ambitious target such as the reduction of fossil fuels consumption by 33% by 2020 and totally phasing out oil and gas furnaces. Denmark is also in the process of making Copenhagen the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025. Without public support, the creation of more bike lanes and retrofitting of energy-saving technology will be an exercise in futility. Happily, these lofty goals are made possible by public support.

As well as an exceptional government response, grassroots movements are taking place; Denmark’s annual rock festival Roskilde aims to be the greenest of the European music festivals; 52% of Copenhageners to ride their bikes to work or school every single day. Even more impressively, half of the turbines in Copenhagen’s wind farm were funded by individual shareholders.

Denmark and Sweden have both managed to successfully balance economic growth and a reduction of emissions – something that Australia isn’t even willing to contemplate yet. But these models show that it is possible to maintain our economy, and prioritise climate action too. We just need to change how we think.