Australia's lacklustre approach to climate change has seen a 70 percent dip in investment from foreign organizations, a report by the Climate Council has revealed.

The report, titled "Lagging Behind: Australia and the Global Response to Climate Change", concluded that while global superpowers had accelerated their strategies to deal with climate change, Australia had fallen behind.

The result has seen a host of green businesses moving overseas, with China and the United States profiting from Australia's refusal to cut carbon emissions.

"We are lagging behind the rest of the world and this year particularly has seen a big drop," Climate Council professor Tim Flannery said Monday.

"We've had a loss of 70 percent of new investment in renewable energy in this country."

Meanwhile, renewable energy generated 12.9 percent of the U.S.' total energy mix in 2013, while the country is on track to reduce emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

However, Australia is well behind its renewable energy goals, set by former Prime Minister John Howard.

"Ever since the Howard era we've understood what it was, which was 41,000 megawatts to be installed by 2020," Flannery continued.

"But the Abbott government has now brought that into question and we are uncertain as to what the target will be and that's a big part of the uncertainty that's holding back investment."

The Coalition has suggested it will consider a new post-2020 target in the coming year, however, it is under growing pressure from Europe and the United Nations to address its climate change issues at the G20 summit next week.

The European Union last week agreed to cut its carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. It also suggested countries should look to target at least 27 percent renewable energy by the same year. Endi

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