Australia on Thursday passed its first major climate change bill in over a decade, codifying emissions targets and enshrining into its law for the first time a goal to reach net zero by 2050.

The legislation, a key election promise of Australia's new centre-left Labor government, aims to slash emissions in the carbon-intensive economy by 43 percent from 2005 levels.

Its passage was heralded by the government as the end of a decade of Australian inaction on climate, and it garnered broad support from unions and business groups.

One of the world's leading coal and natural gas exporters, Australia has been slow to adopt climate targets, even as it is hit by increasingly ferocious bushfires and floods.

While the new targets are more ambitious than the previous government's planned 26-28 percent cut by 2030, the legislation has been criticised by some for not doing enough and for failing to ban new coal and gas projects.

"Forty-three percent is not enough," rugby star turned Senator David Pocock told AFP.

"But it's a start... I think it's important that we do legislate a target," said Pocock, one of the green-minded independents who helped push the bill through.

Pocock was among a number of climate-aware candidates swept into office in the last election on promises of swifter action to curb global warming.

The issue was key to the ousting of the previous conservative coalition government after wildfires in late 2019 and early 2020 tore through 5.8 million hectares of Australia's east and released so much smoke that researchers said it significantly affected the ozone hole above Antarctica.

However, fossil fuels -- coal and gas in particular -- remain central to the Australian economy, rendering climate action a politically fraught subject.

During a tense debate Thursday, some senators even voiced scepticism that climate change was caused by humans.

"Clearly the impediment in Australia hasn't been people (or) communities (not) wanting more action, it's been lack of political will," Pocock said.

"Time will tell but I think the pressure will continue to mount as we see the effects of climate change all around us," he said.

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