Environmentalists want the Federal Government to reconsider 19 major coal and gas proposals.

The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECCQ) has written to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to call for 19 coal and gas project approvals to be re-assessed under federal environment law.

The group wants the government to consider the broader effects of climate change and the relationship of the emissions from these projects.

Lawyers at Environment Justice Australia, working on behalf of the ECCQ, argues that the 19 coal and gas projects in question are likely to damage up to 2,121 matters of national environmental significance, including the Great Barrier Reef, koalas and dugongs. 

“We're asking the minister to reconsider those assessments in the light of the enormous amount of evidence that we've given to her about the impact of climate change on matters that she's required to consider,” ECCQ president Christine Carlisle says.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) says Australia's federal environment laws need to be simplified to benefit both the environment and business.

For each of the problematic projects, previous environment ministers have ruled on threatened species, World Heritage sites and other "matters of national environmental significance" they are likely to significantly impact.

But in each of the cases, there was no assessment of how the activities would contribute to climate change.

As well as requesting a new assessment, the green groups have sent over 3,000 pages of documents establishing how climate change will impact over 2,000 species and places, as well as two expert scientific reviews.