A last-minute deal was struck on Thursday after the Greens agreed to support Labor's long-awaited overhaul of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act after securing concessions following prolonged negotiations.
The laws passed the Senate on Thursday night and will be signed off in the House of Representatives on Friday morning.
Environment Minister Murray Watt rejected the coalition's claim that energy bills would rise as a consequence.
"I'm not going to make promises about what that means for bringing power prices down, but obviously, if we can have more supply in the system more quickly, then that is going to help moderate prices when it comes to energy," he told ABC radio.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the reforms marked a new era for the environment and productivity.
Asked about the latest forecast from the Climate Change Authority showing Australia on track to fall well short of the 62 to 70 per cent target range set by his government, Senator Watt said more work needed to be done.
"If we can be getting renewable energy projects in the ground operating more quickly as a result of these reforms that the parliament's passing that will help achieve those emissions reductions targets," he said.
The reforms are in response to Graeme Samuel's 2020 review of environmental laws, promising to better protect nature through environmental standards while speeding up project approvals.
Environmental groups broadly welcomed the deal, while mining and industry groups still hold concerns over excluding coal and gas projects from streamlined assessment pathways, meaning they can't be fast-tracked.
University of Queensland law professor Justine Bell-James said the exemption of those projects aligned with public and political sentiment.
"These are really controversial things that need proper scrutiny," she said.
"As well, it is just incompatible with the government trying to take a strong stance on climate change."
Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young described the negotiations as the "toughest" she had done in her political career.
"We will block bad laws if we if we can't fix them. But here we were able to get a good result," she told ABC radio.
In a concession to industry, the government agreed to address concerns about two pro-nature provisions, including an "unacceptable impact" definition that could rule out projects based on the harm they could cause to ecosystems.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said ambiguity remained in the definition and how it would apply to projects.
"What that means is right across the board, there is the potential that projects that are presently capable of being assessed will no longer be capable of being assessed under that new system," he told reporters on Thursday.
A major change was the introduction of bioregional planning that would allow governments to assess environmental impacts at a landscape scale rather than project-by-project, the professor said.
This allows regulators to identify ecologically important areas that must be protected and map out where development can occur with fewer environmental conflicts.
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