SYDNEY — Australians are being warned to prepare for another devastating bushfire season this year, particularly in New South Wales.

A new report by the Climate Council, which was abolished by the Abbott government and is now funded by public donations, warned the length and severity of the bushfire season is increasing year on year.

"Record-breaking heat and hotter weather over the long term in NSW has worsened fire weather and contributed to an increase in the frequency and severity of bushfires," the report said.

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The report linked the intensity and length of the bushfire season in Australia to the impact of climate change, stating extreme fire weather has increased over the last 30 years and will only get worse in the future.

"Climate change is making hot days hotter, and heatwaves longer and more frequent, with increasing drought conditions in Australia’s southeast," the report said.

NSW was declared a state of emergency in October 2013, with areas in the Blue Mountains and Central Coast up in flames and more than 100 fires burning across the state. Early estimates suggest the cost of damages from the bushfires would be more than $180 million.

The NSW bushfires in January and October 2013 burnt 768,000 hectares of land and destroyed 279 homes, with two people losing their lives.

Last year was Australia's hottest year on record, with the NSW annual mean temperature at 1.23 degrees celsius above average. While last summer was the driest Sydney has experienced in 27 years.

“These conditions are driving up the likelihood of very high fire danger weather in the state,” the report said.

Sydney shrouded in a haze of smoke as bushfires raged in the western Sydney suburbs of Springwood, Winmalee and Lithgow on October 17, 2013. Image: Getty Images

This year will be no exception, with NSW firefighters battling 90 blazes in August this year and 55 local councils declaring the start of bushfire season well before the start of summer.

The economic cost of bushfires in Australia is also devastating, with an estimated cost of $337 million per year, with that cost expected to reach $800 million annually by midcentury, the report said.

Speaking at the one year anniversary of the fires on Friday, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said climate change also needs to be considered in relation to bushfire management.

"If our window of opportunity continues to shrink, in order to get those really important pre-season activities underway then, yes, there's a broader argument that needs to be had around matters of climate change and its effect on fire management and fire seasons," he said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has previously rejected the link between climate change and bushfires in Australia.

"Climate change is real, as I've often said, and we should take strong action against it. But these fires are certainly not a function of climate change — they're just a function of life in Australia," he told 3AW after the 2013 bushfires.

It followed comments by the the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres who said the fires are the world "already paying the price of carbon." Abbott said she was "talking out of her hat."

The Climate Council used their report to call for urgent action by the government in fighting climate change, so as to protect the Australian economy and environment.

"To reduce the risk of even more extreme events, including bushfires, in the future, Australia must cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and deeply to join global efforts to stabilise the world’s climate," it said.