"The time to act is now – Australian households and businesses cannot be held hostage by the impotence of the federal Liberal government," he said. Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg leads a COAG energy council meeting in October. Credit:Craig Sillitoe But federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg cautioned against the move, urging patience from the states. "National solutions are required to national problems," he told Fairfax Media. "One of the real challenges we have at the moment is that the states have been going it alone creating inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the system."

The Commonwealth had endorsed "in record time" 49 of Professor Finkel's 50 recommendations, some of which the states were refusing to implement - such as lifting gas development restrictions.



"The clean energy target is currently subject to further consideration by the Commonwealth, bearing in mind that the Finkel Review envisaged any new mechanism was to be in place by 2020," he said.



At the COAG Energy Council meeting in Brisbane ministers will also discuss the domestic supply of gas, competition in retail electricity markets and the federal push to abolish "limited merits review" - which allows energy networks to appeal decisions about how much they can re-coup from customers. South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis. Credit:Sean Davey Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said on Thursday he and the Nationals would be prepared to support a clean energy target if it allowed for high-efficiency coal. Under the thresholds Professor Finkel used in his modelling, even so-called clean coal would be ineligible for incentives. SA Premier Jay Weatherill, federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis earlier this year. Credit:Simon Evans

"You tell me where the line is and I'll tell you what our position is," Mr Joyce said in an interview with The Guardian.



The renewed debate over Finkel came as a Liberal backbencher came under heavy fire for suggesting "people will die" as a result of renewable energy subsidies. Craig Kelly - chair of the government's climate and energy committee - says people will not be able to afford to heat their homes this winter because of high power prices driven by renewable energy. "People will die," he said. "It's because of policies we have which push up the price of electricity. There are $3 billion paid in subsidies for renewable energy, that pushes up prices of energy for the consumer." Labor's energy spokesman Mark Butler accused Mr Kelly of scaremongering. "This is another appalling intervention not just by a backbencher but by the chair of the Coalition's energy policy committee."

Loading Labor state energy ministers met with Mr Gore in Melbourne on Thursday to declare they will lead the country towards zero net carbon emissions. Follow us on Facebook