Australia is set to suffer a loss of native species, significant damage to coastal infrastructure and a profoundly altered Great Barrier Reef due to climate change, an exhaustive UN report has found.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, delivered to the world’s governments in Japan on Monday, states there is “significant change in community composition and structure of coral reefs and montane ecosystems and risk of loss of some native species in Australia” as a result of warming temperatures and ocean acidification.

The IPCC report, looking specifically at the impacts of climate change, is a selection of the most authoritative research by 309 scientists from 70 countries. The summary for policymakers has to be agreed, line-by-line, by 115 countries.

The report, the first update on impacts in seven years, finds there is “high confidence” that climate change is causing “increased frequency and intensity of flood damage to infrastructure and settlements in Australia and New Zealand”.

This scenario is leading to increasing risks for “coastal infrastructure and low-lying ecosystems” in Australia, threatening “widespread damage towards the upper end of projected sea-level-rise ranges.”

As oceans warm and the water acidifies, the Great Barrier Reef, like many reefs around the world, is set to decline, according to the IPCC. The vast reef, which may be declared ‘in danger’ by the World Heritage Committee when it meets in June, is “highly vulnerable” to warming and acidification, the report found.

“The Great Barrier Reef is expected to degrade under all climate change scenarios, reducing its attractiveness,” the report states. “Evidence of the ability of corals to adapt to rising temperatures and acidification is limited and appears insufficient to offset the detrimental effects of warming and acidification.”

The reef will suffer from increasing bleaching events, which is when corals start to die due to excess heat, while warming oceans will push exotic tropical species further south into colder waters near Tasmania.

On land, climate change is “expected to be associated with rising snow lines, more frequent hot extremes, less frequent cold extremes, and increasing extreme rainfall related to flood risk in many locations”.

Climate change is already taking its toll on Australians’ health, the IPCC states, with increasing numbers of people now dying in summer rather than winter.

“In Australia, the number of ‘dangerously hot’ days, when core body temperatures may increase by (more than) 2C and outdoor activity is hazardous, is projected to rise from the current 4-6 days per year to 33-45 days per year by 2070,” the report states.

The shifting climate is also having an impact on mental health, with older people showing “feelings of distress” as landscapes alter and instances of post-traumatic stress disorder after floods, drought and bushfires. There is evidence that drought can increase suicide rates by 8%.

Some of Australia’s most recognisable creatures face a challenging future, the IPCC report states, with native species set to “suffer from range contractions, and some may face local or even global extinction.” Koalas, gliders, quokkas, platypus and several species of birds and fish will all suffer from shrinking habitats as temperatures increase, even under the most optimistic scenarios.

Australia is set to experience a “significant reduction in agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin and far south-eastern and south-western Australia if scenarios of severe drying are realised”, the report states. More efficient water use will aid matters, but there will still be “severe consequences” for ecosystems and rural communities if there is major drying.

The report acknowledged that Australia has already begun work to adapt to climate change, citing changed water use and revamped practices by those in the wine, rice and peanut industries to remain sustainable. Work is also underway on lessening the stress on corals during bleaching events.

However, the report found there is an “adaptation deficit” in some locations when it comes to coastal erosion and flood risk.

“Along the Queensland coast in Australia the option of planned retreat is disappearing because of rapid coastal development and liability laws favouring development,” said the report. “To prevent this, risks and responsibilities would need to be redistributed from the governments to the beneficiaries of this development.”

Economically, Australia would see its gross national product decline by 7.6% by 2100 if there was no action to tackle climate change. If carbon concentrations in the atmosphere were stabilised, this loss could be less than 2%.

Since 1950, Australia has warmed by between 0.4C and 0.7C, the sea level rising by around 70mm and a “greater frequency and intensity of droughts and heatwaves”, the report states.

Elvira Poloczanska, of CSIRO’s marine and atmospheric research division, said changes were already underway in the oceans around Australia.

“We are already seeing mass bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef and these events could become annual events in 30 to 40 years, which isn’t very long,” she said. “That isn’t very long from now and these are major events for coral reefs, events they recover from very slowly.”

Chris Field, an IPCC co-chair overseeing the report, added: “It’s very clear we don’t see climate change as something that will take place in the future, we are seeing widespread impacts now and many of these have significant consequences.

“The vulnerability to climate change is widespread in society, it’s not just an issue of coastal areas and farmers. There are vulnerable areas all around the world.”