Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty says Australia is being seen internationally as "public enemy number one" on climate change and risks being isolated as China seeks to reduce its reliance on coal.

Professor Doherty, who is in Hong Kong for an Asia Society symposium on making cities more sustainable, said there was a perception that Australia was not playing a constructive role in the lead-up to the United Nations climate change conference in Paris later this year, which many see as the world's "last best chance" for global action to reduce carbon emissions.

Peter Doherty Credit:Arsineh Houspian

"Australia is being regarded as public enemy number one," said Professor Doherty, who won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1996.

"That's a statement that's been made to me by a couple of people – so that's obviously a kind of buzz that's going around the climate change community."