Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt says Australian politicians should try to follow Britain’s example and strike a joint pledge to urgently tackle climate change.

British prime minister David Cameron (from the Conservative party), opposition leader, Ed Miliband (Labour), and deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats), have agreed to put politics aside and work together to combat climate change.

The deal was struck ahead of a general election in May.

Schmidt, winner of the 2011 Nobel prize for physics and council-member at th eAustralian Academy of Science, said he could help broker a similar deal between the LNP, Labor and the Greens.

“We should be inspired by what the three major parties in the UK have done, so soon before an election,” he told reporters.

“I’d like to see the major parties do this in Australia, to come out with an accord to provide certainty.

“I’d be keen for someone to step up to help the process and if political parties think I’m right, I’d be happy to do so, as it’s such an important issue.

“All the major parties say they believe climate change is occurring, but the average Australian voter thinks they don’t agree on anything in this space.

“I’d say they don’t have to agree on everything, but ... a global deal on climate change is inevitable and Australia should act, if only for its own economic self-interest.

“Its economy will be in ruins if it continues to be carbon-based.

“I don’t think there’s any clarity in the political sphere, no party has articulated a strategy of what Australia should do and why it’s important for a big global effort.

“No one has said ‘we are cutting emissions because of these reasons’, which makes it look to the public like we’re cutting for no reason at all. There needs to be a more sophisticated debate around this.”

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the LNP was better than Labor at dealing with climate change.

“We believe clearly and categorically in the science and are committed to and will achieve our targets,” Hunt said.

“We’re investing $2.55bn to reduce Australia’s emissions. This is in stark contrast with Labor which gave Australia the worst of both worlds with higher electricity prices and an utterly failed emissions policy.”

“Labor would welcome a bipartisan approach to climate action in Australia,” according to Labor’s environment spokesperson Mark Butler.

While the Coalition has officially stated that it believes the proven scientific position that human activity is influencing the climate, Coalition MPs and even the prime minister’s top business adviser, Maurice Newman, continue to question the validity of climate science.

To clear up the confusion, the Australian Academy of Science has released a new update on the state of climate science. 

“The purpose of this [AAS update] is to emphasise to citizens and policymakers that it’s time to stop talking about the science,” Schmidt said.

“To my mind, people who are non-experts should be called into question if they go against the entire academy on this. How can they be taken seriously if they do that?”

“The evidence is clear: climate change, caused by human activities, is real,” said Prof Andrew Holmes, president of the Australian Academy of Science.

“The vast majority of scientists and scientific organisations in this field are in agreement on this. And yet there continues to be a gap between public understanding and the science of climate change.

“Climate change is not something happening in the far off future, it’s happening now – 2014 was the hottest year on record, and 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred during the first 15 years of this century.”