Australia should expand co-operation with Japan, India and Korea in renewable technology to prevent international price shocks and supply constraints, says a senior bureaucrat.

The head of the climate change and environment department’s international climate and technology division says Australia needs to diversify its renewables investment to protect from an over-reliance on China.

“Where are the solar panels made? And the answer is largely ‘in China’,” Kushla Munro told a climate change forum in Canberra on Thursday.

“That’s not a bad thing. The scaling up of what we’ve got to do, potentially that diversification of what we’re seeing through supply chains and through COVID, is incredibly important.”

She said Japan, Korea and India would all become “critical countries of partnership”.

Joining Ms Munro at the forum, the US deputy special envoy for climate, Rick Duke, said geopolitical conflict was driving a renewed push for clean-energy technology to ensure power supplies.

“One of the biggest geopolitical drivers at the moment is Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

“We’ve seen global fossil fuel price shocks, including right here in Australia with natural gas and oil, both driving inflation and lots of consternation.”

Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and a steep increase in international wholesale oil and gas prices have provided an incentive to transition to renewables quicker.

“The European Union has tripled down on its efforts to deploy renewables and heat pumps and to electrify its vehicle fleet, and otherwise respond to this crisis,” Mr Duke said.

“That’s going to take time … but the pace is quickening because of the conflict, the invasion of Ukraine.”

During her opening remarks at the Australian National University forum in Canberra, the US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, lauded the bilateral commitment to reducing emissions and a renewed focus on climate change.

“I don’t think there’s any issue more important for your generation,” she told a group of students.

“You are the ones that are going to have to take this forward, hold governments accountable, inform yourselves, participate and enlist your entire generation.”

– AAP