President Obama's realism on global warming has shown up the small minded Prime Minister of Australia, says Greens Leader Christine Milne.

"Barack Obama has shown just how small and last century Tony Abbott is," Senator Milne said.

"The G20 is meant to be addressing the overwhelming problems of our age but Tony Abbott is showing what a small minded and insignificant player he is by whining about domestic politics instead.

The leaders of the Australian and New Zealand Green parties are calling on their respective governments to take action on climate change and inequality at the G20 meeting in Brisbane this weekend - topics that are absent from the agenda of the meeting of the world's richest nations.

"The Prime Ministers of our two countries may not be prepared to talk about the issues that are overwhelming the planet, but the Greens are. So are other world leaders. As the G20 host, Tony Abbott needs to get real," said Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne.

The Australian Greens are congratulating the US and China on their agreement to act on global warming and say it's not too late for Australia to get on board.

"This should be a massive wake-up call to Tony Abbott. His continued climate denial and his destruction of the environment is reckless," said Greens Leader Christine Milne.

"Tony Abbott is so busy unwinding Australia's climate policies that he failed to notice the global economy is changing around him. He is risking billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs.

Greens Leader Christine Milne says Prime Minister Abbott is setting Australia up to fail in the eyes of the G20, by ignoring global warming and playing domestic politics on the international stage.

"Tony Abbott is promising the G20 he'll deliver on some of his cruel budget cuts that have already been denounced by the Senate and the community as unacceptable," said Senator Milne

"Using the G20 to wedge the Senate is another crash or crash through tactic, but it's going to backfire on the Abbott government.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has backed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on its most comprehensive scientific assessment to date, which says we will stand no chance of preventing catastrophic
warming if we do not leave the majority of the world's fossil fuel reserves in the ground.

"Coal is bad for humanity, and so is Tony Abbott's denial of global warming science," said Senator Milne.

Greens Leader Christine Milne says the reaction to trade barriers imposed by China on coal imports highlights the risks attached to the Abbott government's determination to protect old industry and big business profits.

"It's clear the main reason the Abbott government wants a Chinese free trade deal is to underpin coal mining expansion in the Bowen and Galilee Basins and expanded export volumes into the long term. Protecting the profits of the vested interests of the big end of town is his specialty," Senator Milne said.

Palmer wants to cut the Renewable Energy Target (RET) by 5% and let big business off the hook.

The Palmer United Party are asking the Government to give the aluminium industry a 100% exemption from the RET.

The aluminium industry is currently required to source just 10% of their electricity from clean energy sources. Palmer is asking that this be reduced to zero. 

Renewable energy is pushing the price of electricity down. Palmer’s plan to cut the RET is nothing short of a hand out for big business, payed for by households and small business.