Environmental experts are warning of drastic ramifications for the state due to the rapid onset of climate change.

It comes with the release of The Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence report in Brisbane today.

Katherine Browning reports.

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TRANSCRIPT

Higher temperatures, rising sea levels and loss of biodiversity is what Queenslanders should expect in the near future, according to the new research.

The report, titled Climate Change in Queensland: What the Science is Telling Us, drew on findings from more than two hundred and twenty climate change studies.

In North Queensland scientists predict several animal species in the Daintree rainforest will become extinct.

Professor Lesley Hughes: “I think in fifty years time we will have a very different coral reef, we’ll have very different rainforests, we will have lost a lot of species that we have now.”

A two degree increase in the average sea surface temperature is set to cause mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. In tourism terms it’s currently worth six billion dollars per annum to Queenslanders, and 63-thousand jobs.

With scientists predicting rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions, it seems South-East Queensland residents will be most affected.

Nearly ninety per cent of Queenslanders live within fifty kilometres of the coast, the majority in the South East.

To coincide with the release of the report, Members of Parliament today had the opportunity to meet and hear from Australia’s top climate scientists.

Their message to our politicians?

Professor Lesley Hughes: “Get your act together.”

Katherine Browning, QUT News.