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With so much at risk, you might expect Australia to be at the forefront of the clean-energy revolution and the international effort to cut carbon pollution. After all, the continent's vast, empty deserts were practically designed for solar-power installations.

But Australia faces additional regional and global challenges also crucial to our nation's future - climate change, questions of energy and food security, the rise of China and the rise of India. And we need a strong system of global and regional relationships and institutions to underpin stability.

I want to ensure and the Government wants to ensure that Australia is well prepared to tackle dangerous climate change with a scheme which is both responsible and which meets our international commitments.

The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.

The Open Skies issue is something that's ongoing and we understand that there are issues in Australia that need to be sorted out. It's something that I think over time there's an opportunity for us and we'll work on that in a progressive way.

Australia is a remarkable country with incredible technical and physical resources and a capacity to be a world leader in renewables.

I want to be really proactive in working with the progressive business community in Australia and also reaching out to rural and regional Australia in order to assist in the sustainability crisis and the food security crisis.

Solar power, wind power, the way forward is to collaborate with nature - it's the only way we are going to get to the other end of the 21st century.

We must have as clear a picture as we can of the Australia that we want to achieve at the end of that time.

Way of life in Australia focuses more on the outdoors.