One of Australia’s largest conservation organisations has awarded the federal Coalition just 1 out of 100 for its environment and climate change policies – the lowest score it has given the Liberal and National parties in more than 20 years of compiling pre-election scorecards.

Labor scraped through with a pass – on 54% – while the Greens achieved 98%, according to the scorecard, which ranked the major parties and key independents on their policies for protecting nature, championing renewable energy, and rejecting nuclear and fossil fuels.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said the Coalition’s “woeful” score reflected its support for “expensive and risky” energy sources like nuclear and polluting gas.

“They’ve failed every single test,” she said, adding that the Liberal and National parties wanted to cut environmental protection at the behest of the fossil fuel industry.

O’Shanassy said Australians “really cared about nature and a safe climate”, issues that had barely been mentioned during the election campaign, despite major differences between Labor and the Coalition.

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Labor was “halfway there”, she said, thanks to support for renewable energy – including an 82% target and a home battery subsidy – and its rejection of nuclear power. But the party had lost points for weakening nature protection laws and for continuing to approve new coal and gas mines.

Labor was sharply criticised by ACF and other conservation organisations in the last term of parliament after Anthony Albanese intervened to shelve legislation to create a national Environment Protection Agency after a backlash from Western Australia. Labor and the Coalition then voted together to protect salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour from a legal challenge.

Labor has legislated national emissions reduction targets – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – which the Coalition has pledged to review.

The Coalition’s single point was awarded for its acknowledgment of concerns that Aukus could leave the door open to Australia accepting high-level nuclear waste from overseas.

The Greens and several community independents – including Andrew Wilkie, Caz Heise, Monique Ryan, Nicolette Boele, and Zali Steggall – all scored above 90% for policies that championed renewables, protected nature and opposed nuclear energy and new fossil fuels.

Prof Lesley Hughes, a biologist and climate change specialist at Macquarie University who was not involved with the scorecard, said the Coalition’s low score was “absolutely deserved”.

“The Coalition has voted against all policies in the recent term that aim to reduce emissions, and has promised, if elected, to roll back things like fuel standards and weaken the safeguard mechanism,” she said, adding that its support for nuclear energy had been thoroughly discredited.

But she said the scorecard, like others – including one recently published by the Climate Council – also showed that “Labor still has a way to go”.

The Labor government had “bowed under pressure from the fossil fuel lobby”, she said, and had ignored the wishes of most of the Australian population to better protect biodiversity and step up climate action.

“In the next term, we need to see the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act finally reformed so it does its job properly. And we need to see steps to a serious transition out of fossil fuel exports,” Hughes said.

“We also need to see an end to the billions of dollars of taxpayers money going to prop up the fossil fuel industry – let’s spend that money on nature instead.”