Prime Minister John Howard is increasingly isolated in his views on climate change, former US vice president Al Gore says.
Mr Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W Bush in controversial circumstances, is in Australia to promote his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, depicting the dangers of global warming.
Australia is singled out twice in the film as lagging behind the rest of the world on climate change, including for its failure to sign the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has dismissed the film as "just entertainment" and says he will not take advice from a failed presidential candidate.
Mr Howard is sceptical about the more gloomy predictions of the effects of global warming, but Mr Gore said that stance was not winning the prime minister any allies.
"He's increasingly alone in that view among people who've looked at the science," he told ABC Television.
Mr Gore compared the prime minister's position with the centuries-old opinion that the earth was flat.
"There's no longer a debate over whether the earth is round or flat," he said.
"Though there are some few people who still think it's flat, we generally ignore that view because the evidence has mounted to the point where we understand that it shouldn't be taken seriously."
Mr Howard maintains that signing up to Kyoto would hurt local industry and send Australian jobs offshore.
He said he might watch the documentary at some point, but would not meet Mr Gore while he was in Australia.
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