Gore disappointed carbon tax axed

Former US vice-president and climate change action campaigner Al Gore has criticised Australia's decision to scrap the carbon tax.

He said parliament's decision on Thursday was a disappointing step for a country that continued to experience worsening consequences of global warming.

"Australia is falling behind other major industrialised nations in the growing global effort to reduce carbon emissions," Mr Gore said in a statement on Friday.

It had been a long-time world leader in the effort to halt global warming but this was a backwards step, he said.

The climate change action campaigner is hopeful Australia will implement an emissions trading scheme in the future.

Mr Gore said he took some solace in the likelihood that Australia will maintain the renewable energy target, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Climate Change Authority.