The Energy Efficiency Council has said that it does not endorse the policy, and that the current proposal will drive very little energy efficiency.

“A carbon reduction plan that does not include dedicated efficiency policies will be expensive and ineffective. Therefore, we are looking forward to the Opposition releasing substantial energy efficiency policies in next three months,” said Rob Murray-Leach, CEO of the Energy Efficiency Council.

The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has said that it does not support the policy’s proposed carve outs for large scale or emerging technologies, and has warned that specific measures outlined in the policy to assist some clean energy technologies will not work unless changes are made to the national Renewable Energy Target (RET).

The Climate Institute has said that while there are some positives in the proposal, it is a high-risk strategy with no long term plans beyond 2020.

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CEC Chief Executive Mr Warren said that one of the fundamental structural problems with the current design of the RET is that the range of support measures for small scale technologies are unintentionally crowding out investment in industrial scale clean energy plants.

“We need to find a way of continuing to roll out household scale clean energy technologies like solar panels and solar hot water while at the same time building multi-million dollar clean energy projects.

“Increasing the existing support for household scale technologies will only exacerbate this problem unless at the same time their impact on the value of renewable energy certificates is neutralised. The Coalition has already indicated its support for a measure proposed by The Greens to effectively reduce the impact of rooftop technologies on the RET,” he said.

The CEC has said that it does not support the Coalition proposal to carve out a portion of the renewable energy target for large scale clean energy projects or for emerging technologies.

“This type of banding presumes we know what will happen in the future, which is impossible given the range and scale of the different technologies at our disposal. By trying to pick winners you risk creating another kind of market distortion that will cause other problems down the line,” Mr Warren said.

“The biggest challenge for the industry right now is investor certainty. Developing and legislating a decisive and effective solution to the design of the RET will help remove the regulatory uncertainty which is stalling multi-billion dollar investment in this sector.”

The Climate Institute criticised the Coalition's proposal for being a strategy "devoid of long term planning".

“There is no absolute cap, or limit, on emissions and no guarantee that big polluters will clean up their act as there is no disincentive to pollute, which makes it fundamentally flawed,” said Climate Institute CEO John Connor.

“The fact is that Australia has one of the most energy inefficient, polluting economies and in a world turning to clean energy, our competitors among China, India and Europe are leaving us behind in clean energy investments, jobs and industries,” added Mr Connor.

Instead of placing a tax on carbon, Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott's proposed climate plan would provide financial incentives to businesses to reduce emissions below business-as-usual levels.

Businesses would be able to on-sell carbon abatement to the Government, which would be funded by a newly established Emissions Reduction Fund. Businesses that increase emissions levels would incur a financial penalty.

Full details of the Coalition's climate change policy are available here.