Coalition considers plan to merge climate bodies and fund them with loans

Exclusive: Cabinet committee to review plan to combine Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Arena - agencies that Abbott government had sought to abolish

The Turnbull government is considering a plan to combine two major climate bodies - the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) - with both to be financed by borrowings rather than from federal budget allocations.

The option - to be considered by the expenditure review committee of cabinet as soon as Tuesday - would provide some certainty to the organisations after the Abbott government sought to abolish them, and then to ban the CEFC from wind farm investments and to cut Arena's funding and make no new appointments to its board.