The Morrison government could cut climate spending if it wins the next election. 

This week's 2022-23 budget papers show climate change mitigation spending is expected to fall from $2 billion next financial year to $1.9 billion, $1.5 billion and $1.3 billion in the three years that follow - a 35 per cent annual cut over four years.

This would leave Australia’s clean energy agencies - which are expected to do the heavy lifting under the Coalition’s “technology, not taxes” approach to emissions reduction - with less money than before. 

The cuts have been linked in part to energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor’s recent decision to allow businesses to break their contracts and sell carbon credits to the government, so they can instead sell them for more to the lucrative private, voluntary market. The budget papers suggest this will bring a $2 billion improvement in the budget bottom line over the next four years.

The government says it is spending $22 billion on low-emissions technology, spread out over about a decade. Most of that funding is to top up the coffers of the CEFC and Arena, which the Coalition has previously tried to abolish.