The heat of the Top End's wet season build-up period is always a challenge for business owner George Alexopoulos and his workers.

Key points: Hotter temperatures could restrict the time concreters can do their work

Hotter temperatures could restrict the time concreters can do their work Researchers found many workers who move to the NT end up leaving because they cannot acclimatise

Researchers found many workers who move to the NT end up leaving because they cannot acclimatise The NT and Federal Governments say they are reducing emissions

His workforce pours concrete slabs for new houses in Palmerston, 20 kilometres from Darwin's city centre, at dawn.

"Because it's getting hotter, it's harder for the workers, and for the concrete," Mr Alexopoulos said.

"The hotter it is, the quicker the concrete goes off."

His family business has spanned two generations and Mr Alexopoulos is now concerned a changing climate could create more difficulty for his workers in an already demanding environment.

The CSIRO found Australia's mean average temperature last year had risen by more than 1 degree Celsius since 1910, and that the frequency of extreme heat events had also increased.

The research body found Darwin currently experiences 11 days a year above 35 degrees Celsius but predicted this would increase to between 111 and 265 days by 2090.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, last year's Northern Territory wet season months of December and January were the hottest on record by almost a full degree.

Working outdoors in summer, whether on the ground or on the roof, often makes for a tough day. ( Reuters: Will Burgess, file photo )

Mr Alexopoulos would like to see governments doing more to prepare for a hotter future.

"We're all worried about the climate getting affected," he said.

"If we can't do our job in the times that we need to do it, it's an extra cost, because when you're working in the evenings you have a higher labour cost."

Mr Alexopoulos said workers who were new arrivals to the Northern Territory often struggled with the heat and some moved back interstate, unable to cope.

"The first 'build up' really hits them and knocks them around a bit, but after a month or so most of them slowly adjust," he said.

'Heat stress' causing people to leave

Darwin was the only Australian capital city that experienced a population decline in 2017-18 Australian Bureau of Statistics data released earlier this year.

Charles Darwin University environmental economist Dr Kerstin Zander's research found heat stress was one reason people chose to leave.

Dr Kerstin Zander's research has found people who do not learn to live in the Top End without air conditioning struggle to acclimatise. ( ABC: Jane Bardon )

"Most people only come up for three years, climb the career ladder, and then they go back down south," she said.

"They live in air con all of their day, they work in offices with air con, their car is air conditioned, they don't even give it a try to adapt."

Dr Zander said workers who continued to go in and out of air conditioning suffered more than those who work permanently outside, because their bodies did not acclimatise.

"A lot of people suffering heat stress said they can only work at half capacity, which is a huge expense for the economy," she said.

Dr Zander also said the NT Government, which is trying to attract people north, could do more to prepare the workforce for hotter temperatures.

"They need to make people aware that if you adopt a tropical lifestyle and get used to the heat, instead of shutting yourself up in air con, you can cope with it, and just realise that everybody is sweating," she said.

Filmmaker Caro Macdonald, who moved to Darwin from Sydney three years ago, is the type of young professional the NT Government is trying to attract.

"I was attracted to the landscape and I love the warm weather, but the very things that I'm attracted to will also be affected by climate change," she said.

Darwin filmmaker Caro Macdonald wants governments to do more to tackle climate change during the current window of opportunity. ( ABC News: Jane Bardon )

Ms Macdonald's virtual reality short film 'Storm Dog' depicts a hotter Darwin in 30 years and is her attempt to encourage more action to deal with the threat.

"We have a small window where we are able to affect change," she said.

"Businesses are starting to take climate change into account and governments are trailing behind.

"They need to come to the table soon because it will make economic sense, as well as lifestyle sense."

Both the NT and Federal Governments have given assurances they are addressing the issue of global warming by reducing emissions.

"We've laid out to the last tonne how we'll meet our Paris 2030 obligations and of course up in the Top End there are a range of projects which are contributing to that," federal Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said.

NT Climate Change Minister Eva Lawler said an emissions offsets policy was currently being worked on and the NT Government would continue to work with the Federal Government.