The federal energy minister is working to convince all his Coalition colleagues of the merits of a proposed clean energy target as several publicly raise concerns about its impact on coal.

Josh Frydenberg is at pains to point out the recommendations from chief scientist Alan Finkel’s review of electricity market security would neither punish existing coal-fired power stations nor rule out new ones.

Coal backers within the government were already speaking out within 24 hours of the report’s release on Friday. But the minister said Finkel didn’t recommend any prohibitions on coal power, instead suggesting incentives to encourage sources with lower emissions.

“The market will determine it and that’s the key point,” Frydenberg told ABC TV on Sunday. “We don’t want to punish the existing coal generators because we want them to remain an important part of the energy mix going forward.”

The review recommended a new clean energy target (CET), which would require a proportion of electricity each year come from generation below a set emissions level. It would save households an average $90 a year on power bills compared with doing nothing.

Modelling in the report suggests coal would still make up more than half of electricity generation by 2030, although it would drop to about a quarter of the energy mix by 2050.

Frydenberg said it was “totally conceivable” there could be new coal-fired power stations or existing ones retrofitted with the newest technology if energy companies saw fit. But not all his colleagues are convinced.

The western Sydney Liberal MP Craig Kelly says he would not support a benchmark emission target of 0.6 tonnes per megawatt hour – the level used by Finkel to model economic effects – while former cabinet minister Eric Abetz hit out at what he labelled “creative assumptions” in the report.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott has also been outspoken, saying before the report’s release a key test was whether it allowed coal to continue.

Frydenberg said all were valued members of the party room and he was confident a policy could be found that everyone supported.

“I’m talking to all my colleagues and taking them through the challenges we face, taking them through the Finkel recommendations and then, as a government, with the prime minister’s strong input, we will land a position,” he said. “Business as usual is not an option for us because we are dealing with a less stable, higher-priced system.”

Labor’s Ed Husic said the country needed to be looking at the best ways to generate energy more efficiently and with lower emissions.

“A clean energy target that would envisage more not less coal-fired power generation seems to be a bit of an oxymoron,” he told Sky News.

But the opposition will give the Finkel recommendations and the government’s response “full and fair consideration”, he said.