Bushfire survivors have launched legal action to try and force the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority to develop a climate change policy.

Key points: Bushfire survivors in NSW say the state's EPA is not doing its job properly because it does not have a climate change policy

Bushfire survivors in NSW say the state's EPA is not doing its job properly because it does not have a climate change policy The survivors say they need the agency to "take leadership" and have launched legal action to try and compel it to

The survivors say they need the agency to "take leadership" and have launched legal action to try and compel it to One survivor who has witnessed three devastating fire seasons firsthand says she does not need any more "wake-up calls"

The case in the NSW Land and Environment Court has been brought by the Environmental Defenders Office on behalf of the advocacy group, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action.

David Morris, chief executive of the Environmental Defenders Office, said his clients were calling on the EPA to better protect communities for the future.

"As the body pre-eminently responsible for the protection of the environment, you can't successfully achieve that [protection] if you're ignoring the greatest threat to the environment," he said.

"There's a statutory mandate to protect the environment … but the EPA don't have a current policy to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

"Those two things can't co-exist.

"You can't be both required to protect the environment and then ignore its greatest threat.

"We're simply asking the court to tell the EPA go and create environmental quality objectives with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, regulate the pollution and use their existing powers to do so."

The court action coincides with separate calls from survivors for the royal commission into the Black Summer bushfires to extend its deadline for submissions.

The bushfire that razed Tathra in 2018 left behind shocking evidence of its intensity. ( ABC News: Andrew Kennedy )

'No more wake-up calls'

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action president Jo Dodds said the 40 or so members of the group had experienced a bushfire firsthand.

"We don't feel like this is being taken seriously enough," she said.

"There's a sense that the bushfires are over and we can get back to normal life after COVID-19 — but the fires are going to come harder and more frequently.

"We need the EPA to show leadership … we need them to have a strong policy and use that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Ms Dodds has lived through three bushfires, including Black Saturday in 2009, the Tathra bushfires in 2018 and, most recently, the Black Summer of 2019/20.

She, along with her fellow advocates, believes climate change is a major contributing factor to the cause and growing intensity of bushfires in Australia.

"I don't need any more wake-up calls to know how desperately urgent it is that communities be made aware and made safer from this threat," she said.

"If they're not protecting us from the impact of climate change, they're not doing their most fundamental job.

Jo Dodds says the EPA is not doing its job properly. ( Supplied: Tony Dean )

"We think it's time they caught up with the terrible reality that Australian citizens are facing every year."

A spokesperson for the NSW EPA said court documents from the Environmental Defender's Office on behalf of the Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action had been received and were under consideration.

The case is listed in the NSW Land and Environment Court in Sydney for May 8, 2020.