Govt has no major greenhouse gas strategy: expert

A leading climate change expert has told a summit on alternative fuels that the Federal Government has no far reaching strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The former head of atmospheric research at the CSIRO, Dr Graeme Pearman, says Australia will face growing international pressure to meet targets and it does not have any in place.

The NRMA is pushing for an alternative fuels task force, challenging the Government to fund it.

Dr Pearman says if politicians do not set aside their electoral aspirations, Australia faces an immediate crisis.

"Governments in general these days are more managers than leaders and they manage the economy from one election to the next and don't see we actually need some activity on this for two major reasons - we're spending more and more money buying fuels from overseas and secondly because the climate is changing and emission of gases from conventional fuels is going to be controlled more and more over the coming years," he said.