Bill Shorten has welcomed the arrival of the greener Turnbull government, declaring Labor is now prepared to accept in "good faith" signs that the Coalition will treat wind and solar energy on their merits.

In what the opposition has billed as a landmark speech on energy policy in the lead-up to the 2016 election year, Mr Shorten has extended an olive branch to the new Prime Minister, telling him the steep drop-off in investment in renewable energy in Australia is an international anomaly that must be fixed.

In the speech, to be delivered on Wednesday morning, Mr Shorten will say clean energy investment has risen by 8 per cent in the US, 12 per cent in Japan, and 35 per cent in China last year alone. In Australia, however, under the Abbott government's overtly pro-fossil fuel/anti-renewables stance, it went backwards by 35 per cent.

And what is worse, he will say, investment in large-scale renewable projects fell by a staggering 88 per cent. That saw 2 million jobs created in the renewable sector globally while Australia's clean energy sector contracted over the same period, shedding 2300 full-time positions.