It’s a renewal of the centrepiece of predecessor Tony Abbott’s climate change policy, the Emissions Reduction Fund, and includes plans for meeting Australia’s 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement. New measures on energy efficiency, hydro power and electric vehicles are also part of the renewed push.

In 2015, the Abbott government committed to reducing economy-wide emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent over 2005 levels by 2030. Later, when Malcolm Turnbull was leader, Mr Abbott recanted and said this Paris commitment was only ever an aspiration and should be dumped.

Scott Morrison’s new policy will re-establish the Paris commitment as Coalition policy, and was announced following behind-the-scenes pressure by moderate Liberals.

Critics may interpret the extra investment as an admission that Australia is not on track to meet its obligations to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 "in a canter", as Mr Morrison has said repeatedly since becoming Prime Minister in August.

Whatever the machinations leading up to this announcement, one could be forgiven for thinking that it’s a little close to the yet-to-be-called federal election to be making such a dramatic about-face on such a key policy platform.

After years of unwavering support for coal - including waving a lump of it around in parliament - Scott Morrison and his colleagues will have to do more than throw money at the issue to convince voters they have suddenly become serious about the environment.

This is, after all, the same prime minister who has repeatedly stated that coal is a key part of our energy future, and who deliberately killed off the Renewable Energy Guarantee.

Just a week after Australia's biggest coal producer Glencore announced it was capping coal production "to meet the growing needs of a lower carbon economy", voters could be forgiven for thinking it's yet another panicked move by a government five minutes away from election.

Mr Morrison has also used the announcement to take a dig at our near neighbours: "We are one of a very small club that will exceed our targets. And unlike countries such as New Zealand, we are doing it without spending taxpayers' money on foreign carbon credits."

It’s also a transparent counterpoint to ongoing criticism of the government’s lack of viable climate change policy. There is real anger in the Australian community about the years wasted on forming a coherent, meaningful government policy on carbon emissions.

But perhaps now’s the time to be optimistic, rather than churlish. Perhaps we should take the prime minister - the one literally hugging the coal - at face value when he says the election should not come to down to a choice "between our environment and our economy".

Millions of Australians do care about the environment, do want to see us take renewables seriously and do expect their governments to show some leadership on the issue.

Perhaps these millions are being heard, and perhaps the upcoming election will be characterised by serious moral challenges, rather than petty one-upmanship.

We can only hope.