Prime Minister Scott Morrison is resisting calls for Australia to make deeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, he says China should be doing more on the problem. Mr Morrison’s now in New York for a meeting at the United Nations but his day started in Chicago.

Hannah Burstow reports.

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While the UN was tackling climate change, the PM was talking foreign policy.

Morrison’s absence from the Climate Summit didn’t go unnoticed, where Australia was instead represented by Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

But it was a sixteen-year-old girl who stole the show.

Greta Thunberg, Swedish Teenage Activist: “Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy-tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.”

Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at the Summit, but the PM says he just didn’t need to be there.

Scott Morrison, Australian Prime Minister: “There was not a speaking role for Australia at that today. But I’ll stress on Wednesday when I give the national address in the UN General Assembly I’ll be focusing very much on Australia’s response to the global environmental challenges.”

Scott Morrison will address the General Assembly after the Summit is over.

He’ll discuss internet extremism in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.

Hannah Burstow, QUT News.