Climate change threatens national security

As Hurricane Irma lashed Florida overnight, the Greens have warned climate change is the single greatest threat to Australia's national security.

A Senate inquiry into the impact of climate change, described as the "first of its kind", has just finished taking submissions and will meet this week to set dates for its first public hearings.

"Politics is failing this planet," Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"When you see the potentially trillions of dollars of damage that are being done to the US economy by these super storms... then you understand why climate change is the biggest single threat to our national security in Australia as well."

Senator Whish-Wilson condemned the Nationals for voting on policies to phase out renewable energy subsidies and in opposition to a clean energy target.

He argued Australia needed to phase out coal-fired power stations and stop all coal exports if it wanted to meet its international commitments to curb carbon emissions.

"This short-term stupid politics is going to put us back a decade in climate action," he said.