A new report says a price on carbon could create 34,000 new jobs in the renewable energy sector in regional Australia over the next two decades.

The report, by the Climate Institute, was launched this morning by independent MP Tony Windsor, just days after he helped the Prime Minister announce plans for a price on carbon by July next year.

Last week, Mr Windsor would not commit to backing a tax, but he says he is keen to generate a discussion on renewable energy.

"For many years now I have sort of been preaching a gospel I guess that there are enormous opportunities, particularly for country people, but for the nation generally, in terms of renewable energy," Mr Windsor said.

"I think we've had, irrespective of who has been in government, a hotch-potch of policy mixes that really haven't driven the agenda in a positive sense."

Climate Institute chief executive John Connor says a price on pollution coupled with the renewable energy target would lead to thousands of jobs in every state in the solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and natural gas industries.

But that employment growth comes at a price. The Climate Institute is using models that show cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent by 2020 would need a price on carbon of $36 a tonne.

Cutting emissions by 25 per cent would need a higher price again.

"You'd have to have a starting price in 2012 of around $50 [a tonne]," Mr Connor said.

Mr Windsor says even though he is launching the report advocating a price on carbon of at least $36 a tonne, it does not mean he now supports a tax and in that price range.

"It means that I support a discussion on the issue of climate change and I think what they're doing here, in a quite legitimate way, is an economic way of identifying some of the drivers that could drive some of these changes," he said.

"They don't necessarily have to be driven through an emissions trading scheme or a price on carbon. They can be driven through better policy."