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Mr Turnbull says the report shows that the Government is heading in the right direction. (AFP)

Turnbull says IPCC report backs Govt position

The Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, says the last of the United Nations reports on climate change has confirmed that his Government's policies are correct.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that stabilising emissions would cost around 3 per cent of global GDP at most.

It also found that emissions must peak within 13 years to avoid a temperature increase of more than two degrees centigrade, and called for urgent political action to address the situation.

Mr Turnbull says the report shows that the Government is heading in the right direction:

"There is nothing in there that isn't consistent with our policy," he said.

"If you look at the things that they say we should be doing now, they are all things which Australia is leading the world in.

"Energy efficiency, we're the first country to phase out incandescent lights, we are leading the world in a campaign to reduce deforestation."

But Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett says the report is a clear contradiction of the Government's position.

"The report says what the Prime Minister hasn't said," he said.

"It says that there's substantial economic potential for the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades.

"That's what the Labor has been saying. That's not what the Prime Minister has been saying."

Jobs

Mr Turnbull says Labor's plan to reduce Australia's emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 will cost jobs and have little global impact.

"If you put a heavy price on Australia's energy intensive industries, those industries will move offshore and their emissions with them," he said.

But Mr Garrett says Labor's plan is a prudent one.

"It says we need to set targets, we need to reduce emissions and we need to get on with it now," he said.

"And we need to do it in a way that actually recognises that we need to build sustainable economic prosperity as we go."