Climate campaigners are urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to take a more aggressive stance on climate policy but early signs are they will be disappointed.

Mr Turnbull is a former environment minister and lost the leadership of the Liberal Party to Tony Abbott in 2009 over his support for emissions trading.

Environmentalists have been encouraged by the departure of Mr Abbott, who had declared coal was "good for humanity" and derided climate change as "crap".

Within hours of Mr Turnbull ousting Tony Abbott as PM, Climate Institute CEO John Connor called on the new leader to end "deep division" on climate and energy policy and work towards a zero-carbon economy.

Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders demanded Mr Turnbull embrace renewable energy.

"His government needs to set strong emissions reduction targets that encourage and support investment in renewables," Mr Schneiders said.

Also pushing for more support for renewables was the Australian Wind Alliance, which said Mr Abbott's "ideological opposition to renewable energy" had contributed to its demise.

The Abbott government ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to fund wind power projects, adding to investment uncertainty in the sector.

Alliance co-ordinator Andrew Bray wants Mr Turnbull to return the Renewable Energy Target to 41,000 gigawatt hours after it was slashed to 33,000 in June.

However, Mr Turnbull had already sought to placate his own Coalition government, indicating there would be no sudden shifts, using his first press conference on Monday night to label the Abbott government's contentious 2030 emissions targes and Direct Action plan "a very, very good piece of work".

In his first Question Time on Tuesday, Mr Turnbull continued to defend Mr Abbott's climate policies when asked if he would retain the coalition's emissions reduction fund.

"The reality is if it works in practice, it works. If it cuts emissions, it does the job," Mr Turnbull said.

News Corp reported on Tuesday that Mr Turnbull's new coalition agreement with the Nationals will prevent him seeking to reintroduce an emissions trading scheme, binding him to the current Direct Action policy.

Peak mining lobby group, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) praised Mr Turnbull's "signal of continuity" on Mr Abbott's emissions policies and the new PM's strong economic reform credentials.

"The minerals sector looks forward to working with the new prime minister and his team to craft an ambitious economic reform and productivity agenda," MCA chief executive Brendan Pearson said.

Environmental and farming lobby group Lock The Gate said Mr Turnbull had an opportunity to end "special treatment for the mining industry" by abandoning pro-mining changes to environment planning laws proposed by Mr Abbott.