It took a whole hour of discussion as well as several earlier deputations for the majority vote of August's meeting to be confirmed.

The original motion, approved in August five votes to three, was put forward by Greens councillor Cathy Griff.

It proposed council's upcoming Climate Resilience Strategy recognise a climate emergency, and that future reports must include an assessment of potential climate change impacts.

"The motion gives priority to climate change action at a local level," Cr Griff said at the time.

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"The severity of droughts, fires and floods are increasingly reported as linked to climate change. Recognising the climate crisis is important to developing strong and urgent response projects and plans. The motion demonstrates effective leadership and will help to position us for industry and government grant funding."

Not all councillors agreed with Cr Robyn Bain tabling a rescission motion in the aftermath, among her reasons being that not all councillors were present for the first vote.

However, even Cr Tony Allen's vote was not enough to sway the result at Wednesday's meeting, the rescission motion losing four votes to five. Cr Allen sided with Crs Robyn Bain, Mitchell Nadin and Russell Fitzpatrick in trying to oppose the "climate emergency" declaration.

Councillors Kristy McBain, Liz Seckold, Sharon Tapscott, Jo Dodds and Cathy Griffs all voted against the motion.

As the motion was lost the full public gallery burst into applause.

Cr Robyn Bain however was not amused, telling those community members "I hope you all walk home and save the energy".

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Cr Griff questioned where the opposition to the original motion had come from, as she said councillors had received "countless emails and messages" in support of the words "climate emergency", but none critical of the phrase.

She said Cr Robyn Bain's proposal to replace the phrase with the words "changing and variable" climate "suggested you take a brolly".

The original motion, she said, asked council to take "urgent and robust strategies" on addressing climate change.

Debate during the meeting was continually heated, with several points of order being ruled and councillors giving emotionally charged speeches.

When Mayor Kristy McBain spoke, she said "it's fair to say petty agendas have given way to actual debate today".

She said it was an "absolute furphy" that the original motion would impact on jobs in the Bega Valley, an allegation made by Cr Tony Allen who said jobs at Bega Cheese were going to be "collateral damage if this motion gets up".

Cr Kristy McBain said in fact she had made sure the original motion acknowledged transport and agriculture were important sectors in the region.

"It's a resilience strategy," she said.

She said it was about mitigating, adapting and planning for the issues that climate change will bring.

Cr Mitchell Nadin said the original motion was "ill thought through" and when it was carried it was a "dysfunctional decision".

He said combating climate change was not the objective of a resilience strategy and council had already adopted a position on climate change.

Cr Robyn Bain said another reason she put forward the rescission motion was because the words "climate emergency" were divisive within the community and it was council's role to bring all of the residents behind the Climate Resilience Strategy.

"What we're arguing about is two words, and these two words are very important to our community," she said.

She questioned what council would need to do if it was an emergency, for example if when replacing a bridge would it choose between a timber bridge with a high maintenance cost or a "high energy consuming" concrete bridge.

Cr Robyn Bain also questioned electrical energy usage, for instance she said at the back of building for the council chambers there were four lights.

"I have not heard one climate emergency campaigner ask of council 'why is that light on? Turn it off'," she said.

But according to Cr Jo Dodds, "if we don't name it we can't deal with it".

"If the word 'emergency' scares or offends you fine, stick your fingers in your ears," she said.

"If you'd rather play semantics, if you'd rather we turn the lights off, shame on you."

After the meeting, Cr Nadin contacted Australian Community Media to voice his disappointment with the meeting's outcome.

"It was incredible that no-one - not staff, councillors or the public - could even tell us what a climate emergency is let alone the impact it would have on our resilience strategy," he said.

"It was a circus - we had the public telling us to change a strategy they hadn't even seen.

"Today's decision is an indictment on the leadership of this council, who have shown they care more about petty symbolic politics than practical action.

"That's sad for the ratepayers and residents of this shire."