Councillors in Indigo hope a decision to spend $12,000 on plans for the future will prove their decision to declare a climate emergency was not a "hollow" one.
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The emergency declaration was made in Indigo Shire in July, sparking the need for the council to "accelerate its transition in addressing climate change".
The first stage will be putting together a basic action plan, with consultation from the community.
Cr Sophie Price said the council wanted to work with the community to deal with climate change.
"Some criticism I've heard is that in adopting a climate change emergency, that it can be hollow or can be tokenistic," she said.
"This is us following up by saying that's not the case here, we're going to form a strong action plan."
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Cr James Trenery was the only councillor to vote against the plan, after questioning how much money it would cost.
Cr Larry Goldsworthy said the $12,000 was for stage one and estimated the total cost would be about $35,000.
The money was not included in Indigo Council's 2019-20 budget and will come out of what would have been a $250,000 surplus for the year.
"We've declared a climate emergency, we need to plan for what that will look like and how it will impact on council," Cr Goldsworthy said.
"While I appreciate the concern about the cost, we should look at it as an investment in the future.
"We understand that it will cost a lot more if we don't do something now ... We know that our climate is changing, we have to start looking at an action plan that will actually prepare us for the future."
