The Climate Commission released a report overnight showing the impact of climate change on extreme weather in Australia.
Last summer over 100 weather records were broken in Australia, including the hottest month and hottest day on record.
The report shows that the climate has shifted, increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said climate change is no longer a problem for the future - it's already here.
"Record-breaking weather and extreme weather events are becoming more and more common," he said.
"This highlights the need for strong and effective policies because the action we take today will largely determine the severity of climate change that our grandchildren will experience.
"Increasing greenhouse gas emissions is like loading the dice for more extreme weather events in the future. We owe it to future generations to clean up our economy and reduce carbon pollution."
In the first six months of the carbon price, emissions from electricity generated in the National Electricity Market declined by 8.6 per cent, the share of energy from renewable sources has increased by almost 30 per cent, and the share from coal-fired generation has declined by nearly 10 per cent.
The Climate Commission report The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather is available at: http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/extreme-weather/
