Professor Will Steffen, who co-authored the soon-to-be-released bushfire report by the Climate Council, was responding to Mr Abbott's assertion in a newspaper interview with leading climate sceptic Andrew Bolt that drawing a link between the savage fires now plaguing NSW and climate change was ''complete hogwash''.

The Climate Council report, a summary of which was revealed by Fairfax Media on Friday, found a clear link between rising temperatures and a longer, more dangerous bushfire season in south-eastern Australia.

''We would certainly prefer that this debate be elevated to the real scientific facts as are reported in the scientific literature and as are assessed very competently by the IPCC, the CSIRO and the Bureau [of Meteorology] and the scientists we rely on,'' Professor Steffen said.

''We'd like to see a debate in this country that gets beyond these futile arguments about the science, which have been settled for decades in the scientific literature, and get on with the real debate about what is really the best way forward with dealing with the problem.

''So, yes, it is frustrating having to go back again and again and again and talk about what the science actually says.''

He said if the climate keeps warming at the current rate, the number of days of extreme fire danger each year will double by the middle of the century.

''That's a worst-case scenario and we certainly hope we don't get there. But to make sure we don't get there we have to get emissions of greenhouse gases down very rapidly and very deeply,'' he said.

''For us it's very clear cut, we are seeing an influence of climate change on bushfire conditions, particularly bushfire risk.''

But Professor Steffen said it was too early to determine whether the NSW fires are ''unprecedented'' for their unseasonal ferocity - as has been asserted by the NSW Rural Fire Service.

The Climate Council, which was reformed as an independent body after Mr Hunt abolished it on his second day in the job, will release the report in full next month. It collates 60 pieces of peer-reviewed scientific literature on climate change and fire.

Professor Steffen said Wikipedia, the crowd-edited online encyclopaedia, was not one of his research tools: ''We never go to secondary sources like that.''

Mr Hunt has been criticised for citing Wikipedia as evidence that bushfires are a perennial Australian hazard, unrelated to a warming climate.

On Friday, the Australian Library and Information Association issued a public letter urging the minister to rely on ''well-researched facts''.

The letter states: ''If the slashing of government libraries continues, we will see more politicians quoting Wikipedia and fewer using high quality scientifically proven facts when making life-changing decisions. Hopefully this gaffe will encourage the minister to use his own specialist library and inspire other ministers to ensure that their libraries are fully funded and resourced.''