Australia will experience extreme droughts, more bushfires and intense storms and cyclones due to the greenhouse effect, according to leading climate-change expert, UNSW Professor Matthew England.

Professor England was speaking at a free public lecture at the University of New South Wales.

A "clear fingerprint" links global climate change to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, he said. Scepticism about this causal link was akin to doubting that the earth was round.

"Our climate is already changing and people need to be aware of the kind of implications this has for our region,” he said.

"In the short term, Australia is more vulnerable to intense storms and cyclones. Some regions will also suffer more extreme droughts and bushfire seasons.

"In the longer term, sea-level rise could pose a major threat to our coastal cities and ecosystems."

Professor England also discussed the response of the “coupled ocean-atmosphere-ice system” to climate change, with a focus on the mid-latitude and polar regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

He also reviewed current scientific understanding of how weather systems, ocean currents, Antarctic sea-ice, sea level, extra-tropical cyclones, and rainfall are likely to respond to climate change caused by humans.

“There are likely to be several significant consequences in stall for the Australian region,” he said.

Australia is the least prepared of all the world's developed countries to tackle the issue of climate change, according to a report released this month by the Sydney based Climate Institute, Australia.

Titled Top Ten Tipping Points on Climate Change, the report says that while other countries, the USA in particular, have made steps to tackle climate change issues, Australia is lagging behind.