Some 36 per cent of land-based vertebrate species in the state are threatened, while 10 of the 29 native freshwater fish in the NSW section of the Murray-Darling Basin - before the past summer's mass fish kill events - are "threatened with extinction", the report said.

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The NSW report comes days after a United Nations report on biodiversity found about one million species are at risk of extinction in coming decades as the toll from humans' impact on the environment, including driving global temperatures higher, continues to mount.

"Climate change continues to pose a significant threat to both the environment and population of NSW," Mr Gifford said. "Its effects are already being felt and are anticipated to become more severe over the coming decades."

The report found average temperatures for the 2008-17 decade are 0.99 degrees higher than the 1910-39 period, with 2014 and 2017 reaching up to 1.5 degrees higher.

Rainfall had become more variable, the sea-level rise had accelerated and there had been "some increase in the incidence of extreme weather events", it said.

Matt Kean, the new Energy and Environment minister, said the report showed the environment was "in good condition but we have more work to do".

"We’re using more cleaner and renewable sources for electricity, and greenhouse gas emissions are down 22 per cent since 1990," he said. "Industry and household waste to landfill is decreasing, littering is down, and garden and food waste recycling is increasing."

Critics, though, noted the land-clearing figures omitted any recent figures even though the department has collected them.

Even so, approved vegetation clearing jumped 244 per cent since the previous report, "which is no surprise given the government changed the law to make it easier to bulldoze habitat", Daisy Barham, campaigns director for the Nature Conservation Council, said.

Other dated figures include waste and greenhouse emissions, the latter only to 2016.

The new report found four out of five indicators measuring the impact of climate change "are getting worse in NSW," Penny Sharpe, Labor's acting leader, said.

"Deforestation is driving extinction in NSW yet Premier [Gladys] Berejiklian has given into industry demands to destroy forests and woodlands across the state," she said.

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"It’s no wonder the Berejiklian Government avoided releasing the report before the election, because when it comes to tackling climate change they have no plan to speak of."

Newly independent upper house MP Justin Field said the community expected "all sides of politics work together...it’s not too late to turn this around and this is an opportunity with a new government and new minister to do just that".

"We need a reset on environmental policy in NSW," he said. "At the top of this list must be reducing carbon emissions; stopping native forest logging and protecting critical habitat for koalas and other threatened species, and taking on the impact of invasive species."