The Liberals on Thursday unveiled a new climate policy that jettisoned the party's commitment to net-zero targets, with more taxpayer money poured into coal and gas power plants.
The party also committed to reduce emissions on average year-on-year, while scrapping legislated targets put in place by the Labor government.
Negotiations over the climate policy will continue over coming days before a joint coalition party room meeting on Sunday to determine the final position.
Ms Ley said emission reduction efforts would be in line with comparable countries, even though net zero was being dumped.
"We care about emissions. That's why our policy is about reducing emissions year on year on average," she told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
"(Emission targets are) not just a set and forget, because we should, in the interest of Australian families and communities, look at what the reality is on the ground and how much of that reality is changing.
The Liberals are still committed to the Paris climate agreement, a 2015 pact which requires countries to increase their action on emission reduction every five years.
Ms Ley said a different approach was needed with countries revising down their targets.
The opposition leader said the policy would focus on reducing energy bills for households and have a range of energy forms in the mix.
While she indicated more gas was needed for supply to the grid, she did not say how that would be achieved.
"Our energy mix, more broadly, is technology agnostic, so we want to use every opportunity that can be brought to bear to bring prices down to deliver a stable, reliable grid," she said.
"There are ways of injecting more gas into the system, and that supply is critical."
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said climate deniers had won the battle over policy within the coalition.
"What we saw yesterday was a blaming of contradictory, internally inconsistent statements and claims, all an alibi to avoid action on the greatest environmental challenge and economic opportunity of our time," he told ABC Radio.
Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan, who will be among the negotiators with the Nationals, said cheaper power bills was the priority of the policy.
"We are very, very confident that by bringing all of Australia's natural resources to this equation, that we will be able to put downward pressure on energy," he told ABC Radio.
"We're going back to an approach where the market will determine the types of technologies and the pathways, and that is the traditional liberal approach to addressing these types of issues."
The Liberal policy also reiterates support for removing a moratorium on nuclear energy in Australia.
The coalition took a proposal to May's federal election of building multiple nuclear power plants to expand the mix of the energy grid.
"Nuclear does make sense, by the way. We're going to have nuclear-powered submarines in this country," Ms Ley told Nine's Today program.
