Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to take an agile approach to climate change policy.
But he defended the Abbott government's carbon dioxide emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, telling ABC radio on Thursday it had "struck the right spot".
The mechanism would be reviewed in 2017 and if elements were working then they could be "tweaked or amended".
Mr Turnbull noted the targets were a very big reduction on a per-capita basis.
"Which is arguably the best way to measure it because we have higher level of population growth than most other countries."
The prime minister agreed that an emissions trading scheme - proposed by Labor and previously by the Howard government and himself as opposition leader - was a valid mechanism to reduce emissions.
"I have to be honest and say that they have to date worked better in theory than in practice," Mr Turnbull said.
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