The Turnbull government has quietly committed Australia to support decarbonising the world economy as one of the goals for this month's global climate summit in Paris, a move that has drawn applause.
With little fanfare, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed on the sidelines of the G20 gathering with European leaders in Turkey this week that the language of the Paris agreement should agree on a long-term goal to ensure temperatures keep within an increase of 2 degrees on pre-industrial levels.
The terrorism attacks in Paris are also considered to be a reason Australia's shift was largely overlooked. 
The Paris agreement "must establish a durable platform for limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees, including through a long-term goal, accountability and transparency of contributions, and allowing for strengthening of ambition over time", Mr Turnbull agreed in a statement issued with the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the President of the European Council Donald Tusk on   November 15. 
The concession by Australia marks a significant advance on the country's position and stands in contrast to comments made just three weeks ago by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop that Australia wouldn't back wording supporting a long-term goal being added to the Paris accord because the country does not have a domestic target to cut carbon emissions beyond 2030.
Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of The Climate Institute, said the Australian government had previously committed to examine a long-term goal as part of a 2017 review of its climate policies so the statement in Turkey with the EU represented a shift of position.
"This is the first time they have publicly and explicitly supported a long-term decarbonisation signal as a central objective for an outcome in Paris," Mr Jackson said.
"The combination of shorter-term targets and a longer-term goal can facilitate long-term decision making and investment," he said.
"Long-term investment signals are essential in order to ensure innovations and investment in the technologies required to reduce emissions across the global economy."
Sem Fabrizi, the EU's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, welcomed the Australian position.
"The EU wants to work with partners to create political conditions to conclude an effective deal in Paris," Mr Fabrizi said. "So we are extremely pleased to share so many similar objectives with Australia ahead of the Paris climate talks."
The official Australian delegation to Paris has now been given its final negotiating mandate, which is understood to have been agreed to by cabinet in recent weeks.
That mandate will give Australian negotiators a great deal of flexibility on the floor of the summit to sign up to a strong agreement.
That includes the ability to accept strong language about the long-term ambition of any new climate deal, such as a push towards decarbonisation, carbon neutrality or other versions of the theme that are being considered in the talks.
However, how the long-term ambition of the Paris agreement will be expressed in the text is still an open question in the negotiations.
Some major developing countries are understood to be pushing against some of the stronger language on ambition.
A similar debate is understood to have taken place over the wording of the official communiqu&eacute; for the recent G20 leaders meeting in Antalya, Turkey. Reports suggested India and Saudi Arabia argued against the inclusion of the commonly agreed global goal to keep warming below 2 degrees in the G20 statement, but later backed down.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government would take a "strong and ambitious target of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent [on 2005 levels] by 2030 to Paris".
"The government has a long-standing commitment to working towards limiting global temperature increases to below 2 degrees," the spokeswoman said.
"We are confident that a strong agreement will be reached in Paris."