About 1200 people dressed in red, carrying banners and chanting ''five per cent is not enough'' and ''climate justice now'', came from dozens of community-based groups, after a weekend summit in Canberra.

The groups say the Government's emissions reduction targets of 5-15per cent by 2020 is too low, and want the Government to set a 100per cent target for renewable energy.

Summit organiser Naomi Hodgson said protesters feared the Government's plans to tackle climate change did not go far enough.

''We think that it will side with polluting industries, disempower the people and do nothing to solve the climate crisis,'' she said.

Greens senator Christine Milne praised the Government's move to subsidise insulation and hot water services for Australian households, but said the protest put the Government on notice to do more.

''At last the Rudd Government has seen that spending money on insulating two million Australian homes is actually a jobs creator, plus it's helpful in terms of making people more comfortable in extreme conditions, plus it's good for the climate and it shows how flawed the carbon pollution reduction scheme is,'' she said. ''[We should] use the stimulatory packages to restructure the economy to deal with climate change and peak oil, then we would be using it to create jobs and prepare for the future.''

Senator Milne said the Government should tackle climate change with the same urgency it was tackling the global financial crisis.

Australian National University professor and green activist Clive Hamilton said the protest wanted to shift public opinion about the Government's emissions trading scheme.

''These insulation measures should have been done 10 years ago. And really, it's window dressing. The Government knows there is deep concern about its climate change Bill ... so they have come up with a so-called green jobs charter,'' he said.