Joel Fitzgibbon resigned yesterday as federal Labor shadow minister for agriculture and resources amid growing internal unease over his repeated criticisms of the ALP's climate change policies.

The member for Hunter's move to the back bench followed an upheaval inside shadow cabinet on Monday night. Earlier in the day, the NSW Coalition government launched a major renewables policy in the form of its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

This document sets out the sheer scale of the technological challenge facing NSW - and by implication, the rest of the nation - if we are to end the coal era without running out of power whenever the sun isn't shining, or the wind isn't blowing.

The federal Coalition has suffered infamous ructions over climate change, but Labor has its own split, between "inner city elites" and the party's traditional working-class supporters.

To metropolitan Labor voters, the mechanics of green electricity are not the point.

They know simply that coal is "bad" and that renewables should replace fossil fuels as soon as possible. In the Hunter, the Illawarra, and across the vast Queensland coal basins, however, the moral issues of climate change run up hard against the jobs created by coal and the industries that live off it.

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Mr Fitzgibbon, the national convener of Labor's Right faction, has not always seen eye-to-eye with the powerful Left-aligned CFMEU.

But the union was quick to back him yesterday, and both are calling for a "just transition" that would look after the workers whose jobs are at stake.

While Mr Fitzgibbon acknowledged some leadership ambitions yesterday, his move to the back bench does not look like the start of a challenge to opposition leader Anthony Albanese.

More probably, this veteran of nine election victories senses a real battle at the next poll, as early as August next year. Last June, Mr Fitzgibbon suffered a swing against him of more than 14 per cent.

The National Party ran second, but One Nation's coalminer candidate, Stuart Bonds, was a close third, winning more than 21 per cent of the primary vote.

He intends to run again.

Campaigning from the back bench will cost Mr Fitzgibbon his shadow minister's 25 per cent salary loading, but he would consider that a small price to keep Hunter in Labor hands.

Being outside the tent will allow him to keep talking about the renewables conundrum that will dog both sides of politics until a solution is found.

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