The Australian economy may see a loss of more than $3 trillion over the next 50 years if climate change issues aren't addressed.
A new report from Deloitte Access Economics has revealed that inaction could see the economy could shrink by 6 per cent over the next half century and 880,000 jobs could be lost.
Report author Pradeep Philip - who was previously a policy director for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - said if warming remained kept below 1.5 degrees and the country achieved net zero carbon emissions by 2050, there would be a number of gains for the Australian economy.
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He added that the country could save almost $700 billion and gain a whopping 250,000 jobs.
"If we do act over the next few years then in just 50 years there is a benefit to the economy of $680 billion," he said.
"We'll have an economy 2.6 per cent bigger, generating 250,000 jobs, so this tells us if you are pro-growth and pro-jobs then we need to act on climate change now."
"As things get hotter because the planet warms up, it makes it really difficult for those labour-intensive industries to work," Dr Philip said, adding that Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia would see the most drastic changes across trade, tourism and mining industries as they become exposed to the effects of climate change.
"If you work outside, in construction, higher average temperatures make it quite unbearable to work, so we get a loss of productivity, we get adverse health affects, and this translates across the board into retail, manufacturing, transport and mining.
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Dr Philip explained that Queensland would represent a huge proportion of job losses as a result of climate change.
"Queensland in 50 years will represent half the country's job losses if we don't get this right, but will gain 70 per cent of the jobs if we do get this right."
North Queensland tourism operator Paul Crocombe was unsurprised by the report's findings, having scuba dived on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 30 years and seeing the gradual effect that climate change has had on the natural wonder.
"Things like cyclones, when they go through they tend to break the more fragile corals in the shallower parts of the reef and it can take up to 15 years for the plate coral to grow," he said.
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"If we start to get more severe cyclones more often, it makes it harder for those reefs to recover - coral bleaching is a similar thing.
"If we don't do anything, there are going to be impacts on the reef, impacts on the weather and therefore our ability to access the reef and even the infrastructure such as hotels, motels, port facilities, vessels. All those can be impacted if we get more severe weather events."
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