Senator Ricky Muir has this afternoon said in the Senate he will support exemptions for heavy industry and the inclusion of electricity generation from burning native forests within the Renewable Energy Target.

"Exemptions for heavy industry and inclusion of energy generated from burning native forests in the Renewable Energy Target would be a disaster. It would do even more to destroy confidence in Australian clean energy," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.

Greens leader Christine Milne says dire projections for Australia in the new CSIRO climate change report must be a wake-up call for the Abbott government and big business, which are harming people and missing huge economic opportunities by refusing to minimise global warming.

"If the natural world is in trouble, then so are we, and the Abbott government's climate denial and policy destruction has got us in serious trouble indeed," said Senator Milne.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne says Tony Abbott has revealed himself as small-minded in both the climate debate and his view of women, after claiming his greatest achievement as the Minister for Women has been abolishing the carbon price, because "women are particularly focussed on the household budget."

"He might as well have said his greatest achievement was to help women buy a better iron so they can stay home and iron more often," said Senator Milne.

With news today that RET uncertainty has forced Meridian Energy Australia to abandon its Burdekin Hydro project in Northern Queensland, Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne, who is in Lima, says the Abbott government's duplicity has been exposed.

"Julie Bishop is over here in Lima bragging about ARENA and the Renewable Energy Target, but even as she speaks her government's attack on the RET is damaging jobs, investment, and efforts to cut pollution," said Senator Milne.