The Turnbull government has appointed former National Farmers Federation head Wendy Craik and four others to the board of the Climate Change Authority for five-year terms, indicating the agency may yet be spared the axe.

The five new board members, including Ms Craik as chair, are understood to accept climate change is a serious issue to be dealt with. The Greens, though, say the board has been "stacked" with Coalition-leaning members.

Wendy Craik, chair of the Climate Change Authority, concedes a Low Emissions Target would be a second-best option. Credit:Michael Clayton Jones

Environment Minister Greg Hunt is believed to have resisted for more than a year the appointment of board members more sceptical of climate change. The appointments were in the end approved by former prime minister Tony Abbott and confirmed by his successor Malcolm Turnbull at cabinet on Tuesday.

The government has been trying to scrap the authority, which has criticised of some of its climate change policies. The authority's former chair, Bernie Fraser resigned last month and had described the government's post-2020 carbon reduction efforts - a pledge to cut 2005-level carbon emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 - as putting the country "at or near the bottom" of comparable countries.