Business heads join plan for clean energy

Business leaders have signed up alongside climate activists to a forum tasked with plotting a rapid transition to a clean energy future for Australia.

Former Telstra boss David Thodey is among leading business figures who have joined a new body aiming to influence federal government policy on a nationwide shift to clean energy.

AGL Energy chief executive Andrew Vesey, senior Credit Suisse investment banker Mark Burrows and Citibank Australia chair Sam Mostyn have joined Mr Thodey, now chair of the CSIRO, in the Leadership Forum on Energy Transition for Australia.

They will sit alongside former Australian governor-general Quentin Bryce, Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoffrey Cousins and Clean Energy Council chair Miles George on the the 17-member forum.

Their aim is to develop a blueprint for the future of Australia's energy, which it will eventually present to government.

The forum is an initiative of the Australian Conservation Foundation and is hosted by the University of New South Wales.

In February the ACF named AGL Energy as the country's biggest climate polluter.

It will produce a transition plan within 100 days of the federal election.

Without a national action plan the clean energy industry will stagnate and Australia's pollution will continue to rise, the forum said.