Despite the maverick New England MP being "vastly happier" with the position the Nationals took over the weekend in abandoning the target, he kept his cards "close to his chest" on whether he would stick with the party or defect to One Nation.
Instead, the Nationals committed to reducing Australia's greenhouse gas output in line with a global average, with some senior Liberals putting the pressure on Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to follow suit.
Mr Joyce credited himself and Nationals MP Matt Canavan for "changing the agenda" on the climate change goal.
"I'm going quite well, it's almost like I've done this before," he told reporters in Canberra.
"We've had the National Party that's come on this side of the block and now it looks like the Liberal Party has come on this side of the block."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admonished the coalition over its plans to dump the target and said the internal squabbling was bad for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
"Those opposite have torn themselves apart before and they're doing it again," Mr Albanese told a Labor party room meeting.
"Even if someone was skeptical about climate change, it would still make sense to invest in renewables storage."
Moderate Liberals are urging Ms Ley to retain the target and to develop its policy in line with its values, rather than caving to outside pressure.
"The Liberal Party is not National Party-lite," Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson told Sky News.
"You need to stand up as a leader of the party, for the Liberal Party, and for its right to make its own decisions and to stand on its own two feet."
He praised Ms Ley for fending off the Nationals' energy policy demands earlier in the year which resulted in a brief split in the coalition.
"She stood her ground because she knows that once she loses moral authority, you can't get it back," Mr Wilson said.
It was important for the coalition to stick together, leading moderate Andrew Bragg said, but not at the cost of walking away from international obligations like the Paris Agreement which calls for net zero in the second half of the century, rather than 2050.
"I don't see how we can walk away from our commitment to reduce emissions," Senator Bragg told ABC News.
"We would be a pariah state."
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said Australians "want us to get out act together" and believes the coalition can form a united energy policy.
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.
Amid the division, a group of outspoken anti-net zero coalition MPs were spotted having an informal meeting over cinnamon donuts at Parliament House on Tuesday.
Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan, who is leading a review of the Liberal Party's energy policy, said it was likely to be finalised by the end of the year.
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