PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has signalled the next federal election will again be fought on the key battlegrounds of climate change and workplace laws.

As the Prime Minister prepares to head to Copenhagen without a scheme in place to reduce carbon emissions, it has emerged the Liberal Party remains divided over climate change policy despite the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull as party leader.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said the coalition will not be taking an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to the next election, but it is clear the Liberal Party is far from united on the issue.

Liberal sources say the party has split into three distinct camps - the sceptics who do not believe in climate change, those who do but do not agree with Labor's plan, and a third group that believes the legislation should have been passed with the coalition's amendments.

"There are three camps in the coalition, basically. There are the climate sceptics like Nick Minchin who say climate change doesn't exist, not a problem," a Liberal MP told AAP.

"The third camp was, yes, we believe in the problem, and we think our amendments are good enough and we would be wanting Labor to have this bill with our amendments embedded in it."

Legislation setting up the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), also known as the ETS, was voted down by the Senate after the Liberal Party reneged on a deal to pass the laws following Mr Abbott's elevation to opposition leader.

"We won't have an ETS as part of our policy going to the next election and we won't be having a tax as part of our policy going to the next election," Mr Abbott told reporters on Wednesday.

However, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop hasn't ruled out the possibility of a coalition plan to reduce carbon emissions that would still cost Australians.

"Mr Rudd's ETS is a great big new tax. Our's will not be," she told ABC Radio on Thursday.

But when asked to guarantee Australians won't be paying more to fight climate change under a coalition government, Ms Bishop replied: "We are developing a policy that involves direct action".

Mr Rudd said the coalition was playing "magic pudding politics" in terms of what course of action it might take in response to climate change.

There was virtual consensus in developed countries that the best, most responsible way of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions was through an ETS, he said.

"It's the view in the United States, it's the view in Europe as well, and elsewhere including in Japan.

"For the Liberals now to say that there is a magic pudding solution on climate change, that somehow if you throw a bit of fairy dust at it and say that 'bang it all happens' without any adjustment challenges, I don't think that's being fair dinkum."

Mr Rudd is scheduled to be in Copenhagen on December 17 and 18, but with US President Barack Obama expected to arrive early in an effort to push for a global pact, the prime minister could follow suit.

The Prime Minister has signalled climate change would be key to the next federal election, as well as industrial relations reform, after Mr Abbott flagged a return to individual workplace agreements.

Mr Abbott said interim arrangements made when the former government's Work Choices policy was axed, allowing existing workplace agreements to continue for up to five years, should be made permanent.

Mr Rudd said the comments were a clear indication of the coalition's intention to introduce a Work Choices-styled industrial relations regime.

"The reality is bringing back AWAs (Australian workplace agreements) means bringing back Work Choices. If they did not want that to be the case they would have used different language."

Mr Abbott will face his first electoral test as opposition leader this weekend with by-elections to be held in Higgins in Melbourne and Bradfield in Sydney.