The member for Warringah stood alongside fellow lower house independent MPs on Monday morning, calling for a conscience vote on her climate change bill that would commit the government to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Under the proposed legislation, a re-established Climate Change Commission would ensure the target was met, with climate change risk assessments to be completed every five years.

Ms Steggall and her fellow indepdendents Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie and Rebekha Sharkie called for government MPs to vote as their constituents would ask, not as party lines dictated.

Not long after that Queensland MP George Christensen released a statement taking to task Liberal member for North Sydney Trent Zimmerman for saying the Australian government shouldn't pay for a new coal-fired power station.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was in Parliament House for the ceremonial visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo also weighed in.

"The fundamental economic reality is this: there is no economic basis on which to build a coal-fired power station in Australia any longer," Mr Turnbull said outside the official event.

He said it was "nuts" to advocate for coal when renewables and storage were the cheapest form of new energy generation.

The band of independents said they had circulated the bill to all MPs on Monday morning.

"I really urge my fellow MPs to think of this on a matter of principle," Ms Steggall said.

"This is for the long-term safety of Australians."

It comes as the government considers adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050, something Ms Steggall says it already is obligated to do under the Paris Agreement.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor says the government expects to deliver a long-term emissions reduction strategy before the COP26 meeting in Scotland.

"The pathway to meaningful impacts on global emissions is through development and deployment of new technologies," Mr Taylor told the Nine newspapers.

"That is where Australia can have the biggest impact on reducing global emissions."

Ms Steggall's bill would require the commission to prepare a public climate risk assessment every five years, while providing annual progress reports.

The government would oversee a transition to a lower-carbon economy while setting an emissions budget.

Ms Steggall said she'd already had "productive meetings" with MPs from both parties, hoping party politics wouldn't get in the way.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said coal still had a future in Australia but renewable energy supplies would continue to grow.

"We're assessing what is both environmentally appropriate and economically responsible," Senator Cormann said.

"We will continue to make our judgments based on Australia's national interests."

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Nationals MP Michelle Landry said Australia needed cheap, reliable power for the manufacturing sector.

"That's what this (government strategy) is about," Ms Landry told reporters.

"What does annoy me is that there are people in Melbourne who are dead against coal, but where does the power come from?"

Inner-city Liberals are agitating for more government action on climate change.

But former resources minister Matt Canavan is ramping up calls for a new coal-fired power station in Queensland

Senator Canavan described renewable energy providers as dole bludgers.

"Renewables are the dole bludgers of the energy system, they only turn up to work when they want to," he wrote in an opinion piece for The Courier-Mail.

A net zero emissions target would see Australia balance its carbon books by reducing emissions and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.