Anthony Albanese has refused to promise power bills will be cheaper for households under Australia's freshly announced climate action for the coming decade.
Labor unveiled its 2035 climate target on Thursday, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 62 and 70 per cent compared to 2005 levels.
While emissions may be falling, Mr Albanese isn't repeating a pledge made prior to the 2022 election that power prices would also go down.
Asked whether energy would become cheaper with the rise of renewables, the prime minister declined to guarantee a drop in prices.
"The modelling is out there, and you can see the modelling," he responded on Friday.
"I can guarantee that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables."
The Climate Change Authority cited Australian Energy Market Commission projections that average household energy costs would be around $1000 cheaper in 2035 than now.
But Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen also tempered expectations of a hip pocket win.
"That's not a political promise. It's a statement of modelling by expert agencies," he told reporters in Sydney.
In December 2021, Mr Albanese relied on independent modelling to promise a $275 power bill cut - benefits that have not materialised.
Grattan Institute energy and climate change senior fellow Tony Wood said the new policy was unlikely to produce significant change in power prices.
"I am not one of those people who would argue that we're going to see electricity prices come down significantly from where they are now," he told AAP.
"The most likely situation outlook would be that they broadly stay around a bit where they are now.
"But if we could do that and reduce our emissions ... we'd be making dramatic improvement on the environmental side with a very, very small if any cost on the power side."
The emissions target has been attacked as "built on fantasy" by the opposition, but Liberal leader Sussan Ley also found herself on the back foot on Friday.
Ms Ley had to correct herself shortly after fronting the media, when she initially said the coalition "don't believe in setting targets at all, from opposition or from government".
She later clarified that the coalition did not support setting targets in opposition but it was not against targets as a whole.
"We do, of course, recognise the importance of targets in government when we have the full information in front of us, which we don't have," Ms Ley said.
Australia first committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 under the coalition government led by Scott Morrison in 2021.
Both the Liberal and National parties are engaged in heated debate on the merits of continuing to support the net zero goal.
Mr Albanese launched into the opposition leader's "bizarre statements", adding the coalition changed its policies "from hour to hour".
"It says it all. If the opposition aren't clear from minute to minute, let alone in any considered way," he said.
As part of the measures, $5 billion will be set aside from an existing industry fund to cut emissions in hard-to-abate heavy industry.
The 2035 target provoked a range of reactions, with environmental groups hoping for more ambition and the business sector warning even the lower end of the range would be challenging.
The contribution to global emission cuts landed days after a diabolical report on Australia's expected climate impacts, including a warning that 1.5 million people could be exposed to coastal hazards from rising seas by 2050.