Proposed environmental reforms have been stalled as the Greens and several crossbenchers call on the Labor government to strengthen the bill.

Labor negotiations to establish a federal environmental protection agency (EPA) are ongoing as the Greens have proposed for a hard limit on how much pollution can be released from prospective resource projects.

This “climate trigger” has been ruled out by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young criticised him for trying to “bulldoze” the legislation through the senate.

“You can work with Peter Dutton, destroy the forest, destroy the climate and put our wildlife to extinction,” she said. “Or work with the Greens to protect nature and have a genuine positive outcome for our environment.”

Albanese has emphasised that the responsibility for limiting emissions should be left to the government’s recently established safeguard mechanism.

The safeguard mechanism passed with support from the Greens and has the power to cut emissions that affect the climate

“The Greens and the Coalition, increasingly, are combining to vote against good legislation,” he said. “Whether it is housing legislation, environmental legislation — they need to get out of the way and stop coming up with excuses and start voting for solutions.”

A government source told the ABC that the legislation is likely to be delayed until October. Albanese said he was open to the Greens offered compromise of having the EPA consider climate effects of new projects.

The hold-up on establishing the EPA is the most recent in a series of delays. Labor adjusted its agenda when it broke up its package of environmental reforms into smaller distinct bills back in April.