Key industry associations and lobby groups are moving quickly to ensure job-creating clean economy projects feature prominently in stimulus packages.

The Clean Energy Council will today hold a clean recovery webinar, with speakers including NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean, Australian Industry Group's Innes Willox, Tesla's Mark Twidell, Climateworks’ Anna Skarbek and Grattan Institute's Tony Wood.

AiGroup's Willox will tell the webinar that political cooperation on the pandemic should be duplicated on climate change.

"I think we've all been heartened by our governments resetting and working together across party lines to respond to the pandemic," Willox will say.

Bipartisan climate change proved "too challenging in good times", but now there is scope for a reset, according to Willox.

The Clean Energy Council today also released its proposed clean recovery plan.

Meanwhile, the Smart Energy Council will tomorrow hold a forum on a renewables-led recovery that will feature Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, energy ministers from Victoria, Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia, as well as Ross Garnaut.

Then, on Thursday, the Energy Efficiency Council will host the head of the International Energy Agency's energy efficiency division, Brian Motherway, for a discussion of energy efficiency as economic stimulus.

Support for land restoration and CCS

The Carbon Market Institute has also urged the government to link post-COVID economic repair with land restoration and climate change action.

Meanwhile, the Global CCS Institute told Footprint providing support for proposed carbon storage hubs and clusters would "provide jobs and economic benefits to regional areas for many years".

And Australia's Investor Group on Climate Change yesterday put its name to a statement urging governments to use their recovery plans to "accelerate the transition to a net zero emissions economy".

"Governments should avoid the prioritisation of risky, short-term emissions-intensive projects," the statement warns.

On the waste front, Mike Ritchie of sustainability consultancy MRA Group says the simple act of a national ban on landfilling organic waste would create thousands of new jobs in the recycling industry and deliver a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

Pressure on diesel tax credits

At the international level, the head of the International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol, has said the steep drop in oil prices provides a good opportunity for countries to lower or remove subsidies for fossil fuel consumption.

The Australian Conservation Foundation agrees, with its economic analyst May House telling Footprint the federal government should make major changes to its "notorious Fuel Tax Credit scheme".

"This subsidy is projected to cost the Federal Budget almost $34 billion over the next forward estimates period, with the mining sector currently receiving nearly half of all credits claimed," she noted.

Barriers to action

However, major clean energy projects and sustainability initiatives will face a range of impediments in the aftermath of COVID.

The IEA's Birol has noted disruptions to global supply chains caused by the pandemic could be a problem for some clean economy technologies and components, and falling oil prices could lead to a slowdown in action on energy efficiency.

In addition, it is now clear that some environmental regulatory reforms will be slowed, and some existing regulatory controls are likely to be watered down.

For example, Victoria has delayed its new environmental law, while the federal government plans to delay Safeguard Mechanism amendments.

The Morrison government has also signalled it will make changes to the EPBC Act without waiting for the final report of an independent review of the Act.

In short, it is clear that the pandemic means there is now little prospect, at least in the short term, of governments tightening environmental laws and regulations.

But the trade-off could be substantially more money for projects that benefit renewables, cut emissions from fossil fuel production and use, and support efforts to better manage waste.