Federal Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon wants his party to adopt the Government's climate change targets, arguing the Opposition "confused and scared" voters with its policies at the May election.

Key points: Joel Fitzgibbon wants Labor to adopt the Coalition's plan to cut emissions by 28 per cent

Joel Fitzgibbon wants Labor to adopt the Coalition's plan to cut emissions by 28 per cent The Opposition pledged at the election to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030

The Opposition pledged at the election to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 One Nation attracted a swing of 21.6 per cent in Mr Fitzgibbon's NSW seat

In a speech to be delivered tonight, Labor's agriculture and resources spokesman will say Australians are "inherently conservative" and the Opposition should consider a less ambitious climate plan.

"Labor needs to reach a sensible settlement on climate change," a copy of his speech states.

"How many times are we going to let it kill us? Indeed, how many leaders do we want to lose to it?"

All of Labor's election policies are currently under review, including its promise to reduce emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the party should revise that target down to match the upper end of the Coalition's goal of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction.

"If we could get to 28 per cent by 2030, and also demonstrate that we could do so without destroying blue collar jobs or damaging the economy, then we would have a great foundation from which to argue the case for being more ambitious on the road to 2050," the speech states.

"A political settlement would also restore investment confidence and for the first time in six years, we could have some downward pressure on energy prices."

Mr Fitzgibbon is from the party's right faction and represents the NSW electorate of Hunter, where coal mining is a major industry.

At May's election, his first-preference vote fell more than 14 per cent, with One Nation attracting more than 21 per cent of votes.

He will argue even the most progressive Australian voters could be fearful of change if it threatened their financial security.

"The [Coalition's] 'no change' message worked so well on May 18 because so many Australians saw a threat in Labor's suite of policies," the speech states.

"The coal miners I represent were amongst them, so too were my retired mineworkers. Labor's equivocation over the Adani coal mine left us in no man's land."

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said a policy debate was healthy but he wanted Labor to be the party of "real action" on climate change.

"I think there is broad support for real action on climate change," he said.

"We will determine what that looks like. It's possible to take action on climate change by building on our traditional strengths as an economy and not abandoning them."

Labor's climate change spokesman Mark Butler last month started making the case for the 2030 target to be dumped or reworked.

In a recent speech, he said "nothing should be excluded or treated as sacrosanct" in the post-election review, not even "the area I had responsibility for — climate change and energy".

The Opposition set the target in 2015, which would have given the party 14 years to implement it if it had won the 2016 election. If it won the 2022 election, it would only have eight years to deliver the cut in emissions.

A review of Labor's shock election defeat is being conducted by party veterans Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson.

Former leader Bill Shorten has taken responsibility for the loss, saying the party misread the mood of electorates in states like Queensland and Western Australia.

"It pains me to realise in the last election our presentation meant that some people thought that we weren't putting jobs first and foremost in everything we did," he said on the weekend.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the Government would welcome the adoption of it targets.

"Labor went to the last election with a 45 per cent emissions reduction target, which was going to slash jobs, slash wages and slash the economy," he said.

"They are now clearly recognising the error of their ways."