Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke has called for a national summit on climate change to sweep away misinformation and ignorance on what he says is a critical challenge facing the world.

Mr Hawke said a summit would give everyone involved in the debate the chance to learn the facts, both on the consequences of climate change and the costs of action and inaction.

"I have always believed that ignorance and prejudice are the enemies of good policy making," Mr Hawke said in Adelaide.

"There is so much lack of understanding and knowledge about the issue, there is a lot of prejudice and fear around, that I believe if you had a summit where all the facts were laid out, you'd get a much better basis for policy making."

While he recognised he had a political bias, Mr Hawke said Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull deserved criticism for his emphasis on the costs of taking action on climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emission.

He said others in the debate had also peddled their own interests.

It made it difficult to develop sensible policy when all the media debate did not present a detailed, factual analysis, Mr Hawke said.

"Factual analysis about the threat, factual analysis about the cost of doing something, factual analysis about the cost of not doing anything.

"That's the sort of issues we should be looking at."