Mr Frydenberg has been politically close to Mr Abbott throughout his career, including a stint as the former prime minister's parliamentary secretary. Like fellow cabinet ministers Peter Dutton and Mathias Cormann, he remained loyal to Mr Abbott until the end of his leadership but has since wholeheartedly backed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Abbott delivered a major speech in London on Monday in which he suggested the science of climate change was not settled and that Australia's decision to sign up to the Paris climate deal was "a compromise based on the advice that we could achieve it largely through efficiencies, without additional environmental imposts".

The former prime minister has also questioned the value of the Paris deal in recent months and suggested Australia's commitment to reduce its emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 against 2005 levels was only aspirational.

In a sign of the growing frustration within the Liberal Party at Mr Abbott's frequent interventions over energy policy and other issues, Mr Frydenberg delivered a sharp response to the former prime minister on Wednesday.

"Well, climate change is real. We take our advice from the scientific experts. We believe we need to reduce our emissions. That is why Tony Abbott signed up to the Paris agreement. I point out that, at the time, Tony Abbott said that the agreement Australia struck at Paris was a definite commitment and that it was economically responsible and environmentally responsible. They were Tony Abbott's words," he said.

"I am not going to run a commentary on Tony Abbott's speech other than to say we have firm commitments we agreed to at Paris. The government will meet, and Australia will meet those commitments, just as we be at our first Kyoto target, just as we're on track to beat our 2020 target."

Mr Frydenberg ducked questions about whether the former prime minister should dial back his frequent contributions to public debate on the clean energy target; however, his reminder that it was in fact Mr Abbott who signed up to the Paris deal will be understood as a rebuke to Mr Abbott.

Mr Turnbull echoed Mr Frydenberg's comments on Wednesday, also pointing out that Mr Abbott had made the decision to sign up to the Paris accord and that ???"indeed, as Mr Abbott said at the time, Australia is a nation that when it makes international commitments of this kind, keeps them".

Political allies and friends of the former leader on the backbench went to ground on Tuesday following the incendiary speech to the sceptic Global Warming Policy Forum in London.