Australia’s national climate policy is once again under the microscope, with mounting pressure from within the Coalition to abandon the 2050 net zero emissions target—just weeks after the Australian red meat industry walked away from its own carbon neutral by 2030 pledge.

The latest salvo comes from former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who has drafted a private member’s bill to scrap the net zero commitment entirely. The bill has drawn support from key Nationals and several conservative Liberals, threatening to fracture the Coalition’s unified climate stance.

Nationals leader David Littleproud says he is waiting for the party’s own review, under net zero opponent senator Matt Canavan, but also signalled a potential departure from the target, calling net zero “impossible” in an interview with Sky News this week.

“We are trying to achieve the impossible rather than do what is sensible,” Mr Littleproud said.

The growing unrest over net zero among Nationals has coincided with developments in the Liberal Party, with its Queensland, Western Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory divisions expected to back motions to abandon the net zero target at upcoming federal council meetings, according to reports in The Australian newspaper this week.

Senator Matt Canavan, a long-time critic of the policy and chair of the Nationals’ internal net zero review, told media it was time for LNP members to “be given a proper debate on net zero”.

“Over the last three years, the threat of elections has prevented our members being able to have their genuine say,” he said.

“The Queensland LNP local, state and federal parties do not face an election for three years. Now is the time to have this debate, respect our members and let them say what they think.”

Other Coalition members backing the bill include MPs Tony Pasin, Garth Hamilton, Llew O’Brien, Alex Antic and Colin Boyce.

Ms Ley has established a working group led by shadow energy and emissions spokesman Dan Tehan to develop a revised Coalition energy policy.

She said the final policy must prioritise “an affordable, reliable policy, a stable energy grid” while ensuring the nation reduced emissions “in a transparent way”.

“These are things that the government is not presenting to Australians. They’re not being honest about the cost of their energy policy. We’re going to hold them to account for that.”

Ms Ley told media it was up to the Nationals as to what they did both on policy and leadership.

The renewed push to drop net zero comes as global commitment to the target weakens.

Nationals MPs argue that Australia is paying a high economic price for a policy that the world’s three largest emitters—China, the United States and India, responsible for more than 50 percent of global emissions—show little intention of meeting.

Critics of the policy say attempts to decarbonise have contributed to a destabilised energy grid, rising power prices, and growing threats to national and economic security.