At the report’s launch in Sydney on Monday, co-author Professor Lesley Hughes warned the “context” of fire in Australia was changing.

“We’ve had since the 1960s … a doubling in the number of extreme hot days,” she said.

“And when we get extreme hot days the risk of bushfires is greater.”

Australia’s southeast and southwest was experiencing “a long-term pattern of drying” putting large populations living near bushland at particular risk, she said.

According to the report, Australia has experienced its hottest 12 months on record and the fire season will continue to extend into October and March in coming years.

The report says that by 2030 the number of professional firefighters should double on 2010 numbers, in order to keep pace with the growing population and bushfire risk.

Fire Brigade Employees’ Union NSW Secretary Jim Casey said Prime Minister Tony Abbott must better resource firefighters and act on climate change.

He said Mr Abbott was prepared to “drape himself in the flag of firefighters” during the recent Blue Mountains bushfires but wasn’t prepared to act on the root cause of the blaze.

Co-author Professor Will Steffen said that in the short term, governments must ensure fire services were adequately resourced to fight an increased number of fires.

In the long term Australia needed to stop using fossil fuels and develop renewable energies to reduce carbon emissions, he said.

Dr Christine Finlay, who has a PhD in bushfire research, says the “incredible surge of catastrophic fire activity” was due to policies that made it difficult to do preventative burns.”

“You have to hire an environment impact assessment consultant … to make sure there’s no threatened or endangered species,” she told AAP.

She also said the Climate Council was irresponsible for making links between climate change and bushfires.

“If they were selling a product they would be done by the department of fair trading,” she said.