Mining is anticipated to be the second hardest-hit industry in Australia should there be an inaction to mitigate climate change, according to Deloitte.
In a Deloitte Access Economics report for November, the company predicts the economic loss in mining could amount to $350 billion by 2070, exceeded only by trade and tourism with a loss of $500 billion.
A total of $3.4 trillion in economic loss is estimated to result in 880,000 jobs lost across Australia in 50 years.
Fifteen per cent of Australian jobs today belong to emission intensive sectors such as mining and quarrying.
Although the effects are not spread evenly across Australian states and territories or across industries, Deloitte stated that the choice to take no action in regard to climate change was costly for all businesses, sectors and community.
“The policy choices over the next two to three years are the choices that will shape the next 10 to 20; this is the narrow window we have to choose the change that will prevent the worst consequences of a warming world,” Deloitte Access Economics partner Pradeep Philip stated.
According to Deloitte, a business as usual growth trajectory is miscalculated if it does not account for climate change.
“While doing nothing is a choice, it is not costless… This is true in Australia and the rest of the world,” the company stated in the report.
Other top Australian industries at risk to the physical damages of climate change are manufacturing, agriculture and construction.