Prime Minister Tony Abbott says climate change is not a factor in the NSW bushfires.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, conservation groups and the Greens have pointed to climate change as leading to bushfires being more regular and intense.
But Mr Abbott says the UN chief was "talking through her hat".
"Climate change is real and we should take strong action against it," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio on Wednesday.
"But these fires are certainly not a function of climate change, they are just a function of life in Australia."
The prime minister also defended his volunteer work last weekend with the Davidson rural fire brigade, of which he has been a member for more than a decade.
"I think the risks are well within the bounds of what is acceptable," Mr Abbott said.
"Even as a prime minister you've got to be a human being first.
"I will do my best to be a citizen as well as a prime minister."
Greens leader Christine Milne said Mr Abbott has denigrated the world's leading scientists and global figures with his comment that Ms Figueres was "talking through her hat".
Senator Milne said Ms Figueres has a global reputation to help guide countries to the appropriate response to global warming.
"If Tony Abbott wants to denigrate leading scientists and leading figures on climate change then it says a great deal more about Tony Abbott than it does about them," she told reporters in Melbourne.
She said Mr Abbott should focus on having a plan for the future to tackle global warming rather than denigrate global figures.
Senator Milne said extreme weather events, like bushfires, are being fuelled by living in a warmer world.
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