The episode demonstrates the tensions between ministers in the Abbott government on the one hand and the prime minister's office on the other. In particular, ministers sometimes chafe under the close control of Mr Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, according to many ministers. When Julie Bishop put the case to the cabinet, no one raised any objection. Credit:Andrew Meares The Lima meeting is supposed to draw a so-called "road map" to the Paris 2015 conference which is to set international climate policy for the post-Kyoto years, from 2020. Ms Bishop argued in the cabinet that if the government sent no minister to represent Australia, that would become the dominant political and media issue, overshadowing anything positive the government was trying to do. The painful experience of the Brisbane G20 summit was fresh in the minds of the assembled ministers, according to government sources.

At the G20, the government's attempts to play down climate change had backfired. By refusing to acknowledge the issue as a priority, the government made it the dominant one. Fairfax Media can also reveal that ministers in the Abbott government had repeatedly counselled the prime minister's office against trying to shut down G20 discussion on climate change. The prime minister's office ignored the advice. The cabinet consensus on Ms Bishop's Lima proposal demonstrated that the ministers had no appetite to repeat the G20 blunder. Monday's Fairfax Ipsos poll finds that 57 per cent of Australian adults say the federal government is doing "too little" to deal with climate change.

However, it was only later, after the cabinet meeting, that the prime minister's office ordered a second minister to attend Lima. The Trade Minister, Andrew Robb, a climate change sceptic, who was planning to be in South America but not in Lima on the same days, was forced to rearrange his schedule to attend. Government sources described Mr Robb as a political "chaperone" to Ms Bishop. Treasurer Joe Hockey sought to cast doubt on the report on Tuesday, telling journalists "that certainly wasn't my recollection of the cabinet discussion". Mr Hockey described the mood in cabinet as "good".

The Lima conference is not the venue where countries are expected to make pledges about their carbon policies. Instead, it is a conference where governments make pledges to pledge. Australia will repeat its promise to pledge its post-2020 carbon emissions commitment in the first half of next year, a minister said. The Paris conference is to be held at the end of next year. The earlier decision by the prime minister's office to reject Ms Bishop's travel plan had been made before the G20 summit. The World Meteorological Organisation last week reported that 2014 was on track to be the equal hottest year on record.

"Provisional information for 2014 means that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all occurred in the 21st century," said the WMO secretary-general, Michel Jarraud. "There is no standstill in global warming," he said. Follow us on Twitter