Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the head of the UN climate convention was "misrepresented" in reports that she said there was scientific evidence that the NSW bushfires were caused by global warming.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said on Monday the bushfire crisis was "absolutely" linked to climate change, and just a taste of the "doom and gloom" to come if global warming is left unchecked.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott accused the senior UN official of "talking through her hat", claiming bushfires were not the consequence of climate change, just a fact of Australian life.
Mr Hunt said he'd spoken to Ms Figueres and she'd indicated "very clearly and strongly" that there wasn't evidence the fires ravaging parts of NSW were caused by climate change.
"She felt that that had been misrepresented," Mr Hunt told BBC radio.
The environment minister said he "looked up what Wikipedia" says about bushfires and it was clear they were frequent events that had occurred during hotter months in Australia since before European settlement.
Mr Hunt said he accepted the science of climate change and need for action, but the Bureau of Meteorology had warned against making any direct link between global warming and natural disasters.
In April the government's own Climate Commission, using research from CSIRO and BoM, warned climate change was already increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather.
The commission, abolished by the Abbott government last month, said there was a high risk these extreme events would worsen in coming decades and Australia was particularly susceptible.
The latest major report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also warned that allowing global temperatures to rise above two degrees risked more extreme weather events.
Greens leader Christine Milne accused Mr Abbott of demonstrating a "lack of respect" for climate science and misleading people about the facts.
"Tony Abbott has really shamed Australia by such a cavalier response to what Christiana Figueres, the head of the UNFCCC, has said," she told ABC radio on Thursday.
Opposition frontbencher Penny Wong said with bushfires still posing a threat to communities across NSW, now wasn't the time to be having a political fight about climate change.
But it was important to have a debate on global warming based more on facts than the discussion "Tony Abbott wants to have".
"We should have, in a more sober environment, a proper discussion about that," Senator Wong told Sky News on Thursday.
"Climate change is real, it hasn't gone away just because Tony Abbott got elected."
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