Agriculture will get priority over native vegetation projects under changes announced by the energy and emissions reduction minister on Friday.
The changes to Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) rules will reduce the risk of native vegetation projects restricting agriculture, Angus Taylor told the Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit.
"Projects covering more than one-third of a farm will no longer be able to go ahead if there is evidence that they will have an adverse impact on agricultural production or the local community," he said.
Carbon Market Institute head John Connor said the changes will potentially restrict farmers from making decisions about their own land, but many of the money-making projects may still qualify.
The rapidly growing voluntary carbon market is also part of Australia's business-led commitment to cut emissions.
The more than 1000 experts and professionals at the two-day summit say uncertainty about Australia's climate policy remains a key risk for business and investment.
Labor climate spokesman Chris Bowen plans to introduce climate legislation to parliament if his party wins next year's election.
"If it's not in law it can change and future governments can rip it up," Mr Bowen told the summit.
But if the Coalition or the Greens don't want to legislate a 43 per cent target, Labor will do it anyway, without new laws, he said.
"The government's had 28 energy policies in the past eight years. We need one and we're not going to see it torn apart."
The climate bill would legislate the emissions reduction targets of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050, and require the government of the day to report to parliament on progress every year.
Mr Bowen said the government's so-called Safeguard Mechanism for Australia's largest polluters has failed to halt the rise in emissions.
A week after releasing Labor's climate policy, Mr Bowen reiterated that a properly designed mechanism for companies is key to its plan to reduce emissions more quickly than the Coalition.
For emissions that are too difficult or expensive to reduce, offsets will be crucial, he said.
Mr Taylor said the Australian Carbon Exchange, which operates like a stock exchange but with Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) instead of shares, would have a big impact in the years ahead.
"Pushing that curve out means more demand, a growing voluntary market and lower emissions," he said.
Auction volumes have increased fourfold, with more than 20 million tonnes of abatement contracted across the last three auctions.
This compares to just five million tonnes for the three auctions before.
But there would be no return to a legislated emissions trading scheme for either major party.
The minister also announced spending of $10.4 million on the Climate Active brand and a review of offset schemes by the Climate Change Authority.
Climate Active is an Australian government certification system that shows which businesses are carbon neutral and helps businesses as they account for and reduce carbon emissions.
Currently, there are more than 400 Climate Active certifications across over 280 businesses.
But many of these businesses have a relatively small carbon footprint.
