By Tess Ikonomou and Grace Crivellaro in Canberra

The Liberal Party is poised to ditch its commitment to reach net-zero emissions in a move that would unite the coalition amid mounting pressure to follow the Nationals’ lead.

The coalition is meeting in a joint party room on Tuesday morning to thrash out its position, with the Liberals yet to confirm they will dump a goal of achieving net zero by 2050.

The Nationals voted unanimously to drop the existing commitment in a party room meeting over the weekend.

Liberal Leader Sussan Ley has been urged to dump the target after senior conservatives in the party united against the climate-change goal.

But leading moderate Andrew Bragg said the net-zero commitment must be retained in some way as Australians are “concerned about climate change”.

“They see the impact that people have on our climate and they want us to conserve the environment,” he told ABC TV.

“People also want lower power prices, of course, and I think this is a real moment for leadership now, not backsliding, because our job here is not to worry about what people’s preferences might be.”

Senator Bragg’s “strong preference” would be to maintain the climate pledge, but fellow frontbencher Melissa McIntosh is among those who believe it should be ditched.

She said there was enough goodwill between coalition parties to settle on a position and a Liberal review led by energy spokesman Dan Tehan would save the party from further internal “uproar”.

Senator Bragg believes the coalition won’t break up over the policy, noting the 80-year political marriage between the two parties despite their differences.

“There have been times where there have been marriage counselling sessions and I think before the next session we certainly need to have our own position, because we represent, in the main, urban Australia,” he said.

The debate over net zero has led to increased speculation over Ms Ley’s long-term leadership prospects.

Frontbencher Tim Wilson, who unseated climate-focused independent Zoe Daniel at the May election, said the Liberal leader needed to stare down the challenge on climate brought by the Nationals.

“Sussan did an excellent job in May of this year, when the National Party sought to split off,” he told Sky News.

“Rather than simply chasing them, she stood her ground, because she knows that once she loses moral authority, you can’t get it back.”

But one analyst said a political divorce between the two parties might be needed to save the coalition from damaging infighting over the internally divisive policy.

“They would be able to get their houses in order and they’d be able to consider whether they wanted to come back as a coalition before the next election,” Monash University head of politics Zareh Ghazarian told AAP.

“It would be more damaging, politically, for the coalition to constantly be in conflict with each other.

“Resolving this question of climate change is unavoidable for the parties and if that means that they have to have a bit of a break, as they indicated, after the May election from each other, then this might be the opportunity to do so.”

Outspoken Nationals senator Matt Canavan called for the Liberals to follow his party in rejecting the “net-zero scam”.

Mr Tehan has said the Liberal Party is likely to finalise its position by the end of 2025.

Unmoored Sussan Ley looks like a dead woman walking

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