The former US vice-president and global climate activist failed in a bid last month to secure backing by maverick MP Clive Palmer and his Palmer United Party senators for the carbon price’s retention.

Fairfax Media reported Mr Gore’s own advisers recommended he pull out a media conference with Mr Palmer once it became clear the mining billionaire would not budge on joining the Coalition and other cross-bench senators in scrapping the carbon price.

“The decision to repeal Australia's nationwide price on carbon is, as I said last month, a disappointing step for a country that continues to experience the worsening consequences of the climate crisis,” Mr Gore said in a statement.

“By repealing its carbon price, Australia is falling behind other major industrialised nations in the growing global effort to reduce carbon emissions and ensure a clean and prosperous future,” he said.

Mr Gore added he remains “hopeful” support for climate action will eventually lead to “a comprehensive emissions trading scheme”.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday he would not support a price on carbon whether it is fixed or floating one, leaving Australia at odds with nations ranging from Europe to China and South Korea.

Mr Gore opted to continue with his media conference with Mr Palmer after the MP agreed to back other key components of Australia’s climate change policies the Abbott government wanted to scrap or weaken.

These include the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Climate Change Authority and the Renewable Energy Target, now set at 41,000 gigawatt-hours a year from large-scale renewable energy generators.  Abbott has indicated he wants the clean energy target cut.

Since the Gore-Palmer pow wow, the government’s plan to scrap the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has been blocked by Victorian Senator Ricky Muir joining Labor, the Greens and the PUP in opposing the move. Funding, though, will be minimal before the 2017-18 year.

“These programs are examples of Australia’s long and continued excellence in combating the climate crisis, and must continue,” Mr Gore said in his statement.

European blast

Australia’s carbon tax repeal also attracted criticism from the European Union, with climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard expressing her regret at the move “just as new carbon pricing initiatives are emerging all around the world”.

“The EU is convinced that pricing carbon is not only the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions, but also THE tool to make the economic paradigm shift the world needs,” Ms Hedegaard said in a statement on the EU’s website. “This is why the EU will continue to work towards global carbon pricing with all international partners.”

Australia’s carbon price was raised to $25.40 per tonne of carbon-dioxide emissions on July 1 after launching two years ago at $23 per tonne.

While devised at a level close the EU’s emissions trade scheme in mid-2011, the European price has since fallen to about a quarter of Australia’s price. Had the carbon tax not been repealed, it would have shifted to a floating price linked to the EU from July 2015.

“With (Thursday's) repeal of the Carbon Pricing Mechanism, the discussions to link the Australian system and Europe's carbon market will evidently be discontinued," Ms Hedegaard said.