Will this be Australia's first climate budget?

Framed as Australia's response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, which is set to pour trillions of dollars into renewable energy and clean industry incentives, budget night will reveal just how many billions the Australian government will spend to stake our own claim on the clean industrial age.

This could be the country's first climate budget, when the building blocks are laid for the next era of Australian prosperity in a global economy.

Going big on transitioning our existing industries and building new ones is a good thing. When the world is undergoing a once-in-a-century restructuring of our economic and industrial systems, it pays to strike out boldly rather than hesitate and risk missing the boat.

Australia has abundant, unmatched resources in wind and sunshine; a highly skilled workforce with deep manufacturing know-how; and a strong reputation as a safe and stable place to do business.

With smart support from the government sending the right signals to global investment markets, companies should be knocking down our door to build new industries and create more good jobs here.

But when it comes to tackling the climate crisis and setting Australia up to thrive in a clean energy economy, other levers matter as much as money.

We can't simply spend our way out of climate change; the challenge in front of us is far too vast. Besides, there's no shortage of private capital looking to make future-focused investments if we get our policy and regulatory settings right.

That's why, alongside targeted spending, governments need to directly regulate and efficiently scale-up clean energy and industries, while forcing polluting ones to start scaling down.

Their willingness to do so will determine whether we transform our economy at the speed and scale science says is necessary now to avoid climate catastrophe.

The Climate Council didn't make a budget submission this year. Instead, we released a wide-ranging report, Seize the Decade, detailing dozens of ideas for policy and regulation all levels of government can take up to build on Australia's growing momentum and cut climate pollution further and faster this decade.

By implementing practical actions we can get on with today, we can electrify our economy and meet our full potential. For example, delivering an updated version of the federal Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), a policy which has helped Australia become a global leader in household solar installation, but which is coming towards the end of its legislated life.

Rooftop solar has huge potential to help get more power online quickly while we continue to accelerate the build of large-scale renewables. An updated, smartly targeted SRES could drive a new wave of commercial and industrial solar installations - getting panels onto every suitable office building, big box superstore and industrial workshop in the country.

We can also ensure all new homes built from here are efficient and all-electric, and set a pathway to phase out the use of gas for homes and buildings around the country. Alongside cutting climate pollution, electrification and energy efficiency upgrades can ease cost of living pressures, saving Australian households between $1119 and $2872 a year depending on where they live.

What else is required to seize the decade? We can slash climate pollution from our industries by further strengthening the Safeguard Mechanism, the law that requires big polluters to make genuine cuts to their emissions, so that it covers more facilities, includes electricity use, and forces companies to stop relying on offsets.

With the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard on the way, Australian drivers will soon have access to cleaner, cheaper to run vehicles. We can take the next step and make deeper cuts to transport pollution by putting shared and active transport at the heart of transport policies and planning through the upcoming Net Zero Transport and Infrastructure Roadmap.

There's plenty more policy and regulatory options where these came from too, like fixing Australia's national environment law and ending native forest logging to avoid more land sector emissions and help increase Australia's natural carbon sink.

Investment in good things that help us slash climate pollution is necessary and important. But let's not make the mistake of assuming this is the only way governments can accelerate Australia's progress to a clean economy now.

The politics of pulling regulatory and policy levers may be harder, but this can have an impact many times greater than a fistfull of dollars alone.

As Antnio Guterres memorably put it, we need to be doing "everything, everywhere, all at once" to drive down climate pollution as quickly as possible now.

Budget carrots go down easy in May, but governments have plenty of other tools for driving change that can be put to use year-round.