The Berejiklian government's Climate Change Fund has spent almost $50 million supporting work on raising the Warragamba dam wall - an outlay critics say is unrelated to the fund's original purpose.

The fund's annual report, released last week, also shows the government collected $41 million more than it spent during the 2018-19 year. Over the past six years, the fund has contributed a net $497 million to state coffers.

The plan for raising the Warragamba Dam wall seems to be largely paid for so far by dipping into the NSW Climate Change Fund. Credit:Wolter Peeters

In the latest year, the fund spent $24.7 million on the Hawkesbury–Nepean Valley flood risk management, the centrepiece of which is the plan to lift the Warragamba Dam by 14 metres. That sum was up from $15.9 million in the previous year and $5.9 million for the 2016-17 year.

“The money is being used more like a slush fund on tenuously linked projects rather than a strategic reserve to invest in a real plan to reduce the state’s carbon footprint and climate risk," said Justin Field, an independent upper house MP.