Climate Change experts say it's nice that Prime Minister Scott Morrison talks about recycling and plastic in the ocean, but it has nothing to do with the much larger threat of man-made global warming and rising sea levels. 

It misses the mark for climate experts.

"It's great that he is concerned about plastic in the oceans and recycling, but that problem has zero to do with emissions of carbon dioxide and global warming so it sounds like kind of a distraction to me," Professor Steven Sherwood of the University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Centre said.  "It's something that people can see, it's kind of icky whereas carbon dioxide you can't see, but in terms of the threat that it poses to our future I don't think the two are comparable on any timescale."

The prime minister was keen to list Australia's environmental bona fides in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly Leaders Week in New York City.

"Australia is responsible for just 1.3 percent of global emissions," Morrison said.  "Australia is doing our bit on climate change and we reject any suggestion to the contrary."

But as a developed country, Australia is looked to by others - even nations with much larger capacities for manufacturing and the pollution that comes from it. raging bull

"Even though we're pretty small, we do set an example," said Professor Sherwood.  "If we decide we're not going to particularly worry about this problem then other's aren't going to either."