Australia's government has voted to repeal a carbon tax on that country's biggest greenhouse gas polluters, ending one bitter domestic battle but opening up new fronts in the climate war both at home and internationally.

Diplomats negotiating a new global treaty denounced the repeal, saying Australia's move slows down their momentum. In the United States, Senate Democrats insisted Australia's actions will have no implications for President Obama's climate change regulations, while Republicans cheered its demise, saying the tax's repeal highlights the global unpopularity of carbon-curbing policies.

In a 39-32 vote, Australia's Senate made good on Prime Minister Tony Abbott's central campaign promise to "ax the tax," which was implemented in 2012. Abbott's Liberal Party claimed the policy put an annual 9-billion-Australian-dollar ($8.4 billion) burden on the economy.

"Today, the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone: a useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families' cost of living and which didn't actually help the environment," Abbott said at a press conference in the capital, Canberra.

The repeal comes at a sensitive time both internationally and in the United States. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting a climate change summit for heads of state on Sept. 23 aimed at putting fresh pressure on leaders to deliver a strong deal in Paris, where the final agreement is expected to be signed in December of 2015.

Ambassador Marlene Moses of the tiny South Pacific island nation Nauru, who is also head of the Alliance of Small Island States, said it was "disheartening to see Australia deprioritize climate change" while action in other countries is building ahead of the September summit. "Australia, unfortunately, seems content to let the world move forward without it," she said.