Despite efforts to reduce the impact of global warming, changing climate will "challenge" local communities.

Professor Thomas Stocker, one of the lead authors on the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says the world is at a point where it will have to make a choice between "business as usual" and immediate action to be taken limit the increase of temperature.

The effect warming will result in floods or droughts more severe or increasing the frequency of heat waves.

Professor Stocker said, "These are all things the local communities need to take into account when weighing their choices between a warmer world versus a world where climate change is limited". He presented an outline of the IPCC's findings at the Greenhouse 2013 conference in Adelaide today. He said that in his home country Switzerland, global warming might mean adjusting to a region where there was less snow in winter. However, increasing global warming in coastal communities means adapting to the rising sea levels.

The most recent IPCC report was the first such comprehensive assessment of the organization since 2007. It was found that more than half of the warming that had occurred since 1951 was due to the release of greenhouse gases.