Queenslanders will be hardest hit if Australia fails to act on climate change, Labor warns

Chris Bowen says Coalition's failure to cut emissions could cost 500,000 jobs in Queensland but there is a different path'

The opposition climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has warned almost one million Australians will lose their jobs if runaway climate change decimates the environment and the economy - with Queensland bearing the brunt of any failure to act.

Bowen used a speech in Brisbane on Thursday night to warn Queenslanders they would pay the price for the federal Coalition's failure to act in accordance with climate science, with half a million jobs lost in the state and a forecast economic contraction of 8% by 2050 and 14% by 2070.