Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh said putting a climate sceptic in charge of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) review is threatening $11 billion worth of clean energy investments.
He said that clean energy investment is vital to generating jobs in Australia and moving the nation toward a low carbon future.
"We've seen big benefits from the Renewable Energy Target: another million solar panels on rooftops, the tripling of wind generation, tripling of jobs in the renewable energy sector. And it's important that Australia maintains this policy which has enjoyed bipartisan support since its inception," he said.
Leigh said he favoured the independent work of the Climate Institute on the benefits of the RET over any assessment undertaken by "climate change sceptic" Dick Warburton.
"Let's face it Warburton disagrees with the 97 per cent of scientists who say that climate change is happening and humans are causing it," he said.
"We've just had the biggest drop in emissions in a quarter of a century as a result of the carbon price, a policy which was working to reduce emissions and took between 11 and 17 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere, according to Frank Jotzo of the Australian National University."
However, Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Senator Simon Birmingham said the RET review is necessary to ensure it is working in Australia's national interest in terms of providing Australia with competitive power prices.
"What's important to realise here is that as a government, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that Australia is as competitive as possible when it comes to having cheaper electricity prices; that's why we voted to repeal the carbon tax," Birmingham said.
"The Government isn't into commissioning independent reviews and then pre-empting the outcome of them."