While both sides of politics butt heads over whether or not an emissions trading scheme is a tax, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has provided a new label.

He says emissions trading is “an electricity tax scam”.

Speaking after the ALP’s national conference on the weekend - which backed an ETS and a 50 per cent renewable energy target - Mr Abbott said Labor's electricity tax “scam” would bring new costs for Australian consumers that would last decades.

“Then you've got this massive and unnecessary commitment to renewables which will cause a massive overbuild of wind farms, all of which has to be paid for by the consumers,” he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

Mr Abbott also said that Labor's 2030 renewable energy target would cost around $60 billion, but there is no word on where those figures come from.