Mr Abbott said Mr Rudd had refused to tell the country by how much more he wanted emissions cut. ''He won't tell us exactly how it is going to be achieved. And he won't tell us how much it is going to cost.''

He seized on projected NSW electricity price rises to buttress his argument about the consequences of an emissions trading scheme. The NSW pricing regulator has estimated electricity prices in the state would increase by 62 per cent in the next three years ''and those massive increases are due in significant measure to Mr Rudd's emissions tax'', Mr Abbott said.

''Mr Rudd is trying to tell us that there is a painless way to tackle climate change. There isn't.''

But acting Climate Change Minister Greg Combet declared Mr Abbott's claim was incorrect and he had overstated the impact of the emissions scheme by about three times.

Mr Combet also said Mr Abbott's assertion that the scheme would cost households $1100 a year was wrong; the average price impact for households would be about $624 a year in 2013.

Ninety per cent of households would get assistance, and on average these households would get about $660 compensation in 2013.

Mr Abbott said the Copenhagen conference had been chaotic and confused, with every vested interest jumping on the bandwagon to fight for whatever concerned them.

''I think that what's going to come out of Copenhagen, for the general Australian public at least, is the idea that it's not nearly as simple or straightforward as Kevin Rudd was pretending that it was,'' he said.

Speaking in Copenhagen, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong accused Mr Abbott of ''willing these negotiations to fail''.

''It's a pretty sad state of affairs when a politician is wanting something to fail when it is so clearly in the national interest for this to succeed,'' she said.