Australian billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has slammed Donald Trump’s “bulldust” on climate change, insinuating the US president is too sheltered to understand the reality of it.

“Across America, people are not venting what they tell me in private, and it’s just so sad,” Forrest told Today.

“You’ve got to be able to speak truth to power. Otherwise power is never going to hear it.”

Trump declared climate change was a “con job” in an address to the United Nations earlier this week.

Forrest, a long-time champion of green energy, cited his own lived experience in Australia and the Pacific islands, including witnessing “coral reef decimation”, as having granted him a closer perspective on the issue than Trump.

“Mate, you come and walk a mile in my shoes before you come out with utter bulldust saying that global warming is not hitting. It’s hitting us hard,” he said.

“You just probably can’t feel it in the White House, mate. Air conditioners on. Nice is it mate?”

Forrest said his comments about the issue had provoked a response from the White House, but he refused to go into details about it.

He said there was still time for Trump to flip on the issue as he rhetorically did regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine this week, and urged him to do so before the US missed the boat.

“Don’t deny your people, you know, the other horses in that great big energy race,” Forrest said.

“You’re backing a tired, tired old horse. Oil and gas. It’s a bit old, bit shaky. It’s only going to win because you kill all the other horses. Well, that’s not good for the American people, mate.”

Forrest has also called for the Australian government to increase its commitment to cutting emissions, saying a 70 per cent reduction needed to be the minimum.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently announced a target of “62 to 70 per cent” cuts by 2035.

“All I can say is if you set yourself a target, if you make, if you evolve into 70 per cent being a minimum, then all the lazy CEOs, they’re going to have to get off their tails and stop just soaking up bonuses and actually do some work,” Forrest said.

“I mean, we are looking at a much cheaper way of making energy. The technology is there.”