Businesses across the energy and manufacturing sectors are refusing to endorse the Coalition’s rejection of Australia’s 2030 climate targets, insisting that a vast expansion of firmed renewables, not nuclear, remains the best way to transition the grid.

Before a meeting of state and federal energy ministers scheduled for Friday, a joint statement signed by 18 business, investment, conservation and community groups has stressed policy certainty is critical to underpinning the level of private investment required to ensure reliable, affordable and lower-emission energy.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has revived Australia’s climate wars ahead of the next federal election, campaigning to abandon the national target for 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Instead, he has proposed to build seven nuclear power stations to achieve the target of net zero emissions by 2050.

However, the joint statement, signed by influential business groups including the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Steel Institute, the Australian Energy Council and the National Farmers Federation, backs the 2030 climate targets as “critical foundations” for investment in the energy transition.

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It also expresses support for the energy market operator’s 25-year transition plan, released last month, which said the best and lowest-cost path for Australia was to develop a grid dominated by renewables, firmed up with battery and hydroelectricity storage, and backed up by gas-powered generation.

The road map did not include nuclear energy, which is still banned under federal law, and said it remained “one of the most expensive ways to generate electricity”.

Ahead of an approaching wave of coal-fired power station closures across the nation, signatories of Thursday’s joint statement said there was no time to delay building out enough new renewable energy, transmission and storage.

“Time is short before ageing generators retire,” it said.