According to The Australian Financial Review, an analysis of the ETS by Frontier Economics has concluded the scheme would result in 25,000 fewer jobs and 4 per cent lower real wages by 2020.

The modelling challenges the government's claims, reiterated at the weekend by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, that the scheme should have little or no impact on jobs.

But Frontier Economics managing director Danny Price said that, having looked at the scheme's labour force impacts "in many different ways using many different assumptions", his analysis suggested it would result in "significant job losses" by 2020.

"Overall job losses are about 45,000," he said. "But there are job gains of about 20,000. So we have a net loss of about 25,000 over the next dozen years or so from the [ETS]."