John Stuchbery fired up at Monday night's council meeting amid debate over a motion put by colleague David Thurley to review the city's climate change approach.

"Local governments are getting active, state governments are getting active, one would hope that eventually our federal government might be sufficiently embarrassed by what's going on around them, that they might also be dragged kicking and screaming to the table and might in fact get active themselves," Cr Stuchbery said.

The Federal Environment Minister and Farrer MP Sussan Ley responded matter-of-factly to Cr Stuchbery.

"Firstly, I want to applaud council for continuing to ask how climate change might be impacting our city, and also the possible effect on council's operations," Ms Ley said.

"Any councillor is welcome to express their personal view, but I can assure John the Morrison Government is working as hard as ever to invest and support new energy and carbon reducing technology which will see us meet our net zero emissions commitment."

Cr Thurley moved his motion in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published earlier this month which highlighted the need for further action.

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"It really does show a deterioration and an increasing rate of change and I believe that we really need to get stuck into what we're doing," Cr Thurley said.

He noted previous action by the council on waste, solar panels and LED street lighting, but said more could be done.

"One of the things I would say and it's been made clear to me from a number of conferences I've attended is that we're not one of the most economical water users per household in the country, in NSW, we can do better," Cr Thurley said.

Councillor Murray King cited cuts to the municipal vehicle fleet as a potential action, given COVID may have shown there was not the need for the same number of cars with changes in travel.

Deputy mayor Amanda Cohn said a power purchasing agreement and electrifying the council car fleet could be beneficial.

Cr Stuchbery said "every little bit helps" in responding to the "climate emergency" whether that might be individuals with solar panels or governments of all levels acting.

Under the motion, which was adopted unanimously, a report will be prepared within the next three months which will examine what the council had done since May last year when it recognised climate change as a significant issue.

As part of that report, staff will detail any potential legal and financial risks to council due to climate change.