A PUSH is on for Albury Council to declare a climate emergency but Greens member and deputy mayor Amanda Cohn has no plans to act quickly on the call.
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A Wagga climate action group has emailed all Albury councillors, urging them to follow other municipalities and adopt a declaration of climate emergency.
Wagga Wagga Fridays for Future representative and doctor Trudi Beck told them it was time to act as "it isn't business as usual".
"I write to you as a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, as the college has released a position statement on climate change that obliges me to 'advocate for policies to protect human health from risks of climate change at local, state, national and international government levels'," Dr Beck wrote.
"Local government has a critical role to play."
After sending the email on Sunday night, Wagga Council met on Monday and rescinded its climate emergency declaration made at a meeting on July 8 following posters being erected suggesting it was a "carbon footprint tax".
Dr Beck said that was disappointing but it would not deter her group's lobbying which includes weekly Friday gatherings at the Wagga office of Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
Cr Cohn, who is also a medical doctor, said she would support a climate emergency declaration by Albury Council and had been approached to put a motion similar to Wagga's.
But she had "no immediate plans" to do so, arguing broad support was needed.
"The climate emergency plan would really be about making sure Albury City is robust and resilient going into the future," Cr Cohn said.
"I would love to see a plan that takes into account climate change when making long term decisions about urban planning and our own assets and asset renewal."
Councillor David Thurley preferred practical steps such as more solar panels and LED street lighting upgrades.
"Shoving it in people's faces doesn't work and people don't like to be told by a few councillors what to do," he said.
"I think we would get the same backlash as Wagga with people saying 'why don't you stick to roads, rates and rubbish'."
Former mayor Henk van de Ven said the matter was "too complex".
"I don't have enough information or skills to make that decision," he said.
"You could probably line up 100 experts on both sides of the debate and they could mount convincing arguments and say 'this is normal' or 'this is climate change'."
Cr Cohn said "it's really important to listen to the experts" and "if 97 per cent told us a bridge would collapse" then "we would take sensible action and fix the bridge".
