Dubbo councillor Stephen Lawrence has compared the opinions of his colleagues on climate change to "the views of cavemen".
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Dubbo Regional Council has set a target to have 50 per cent renewable energy by 2025. It includes a commitment to transition to a fleet of vehicles with zero emissions.
The councillors were divided on the issue at the meeting on Monday night but it passed with a slight majority.
But, when Cr Lawrence, deputy mayor, indicated he would be taking it further in the future and be pushing for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, he idea was labelled as "loopy".
Mayor Ben Shields said the idea was "verging on the absurd".
"I am quite alarmed myself that we could potentially have a councillor here advocating we go to 100 per cent renewables within 10 years. That is utterly, utterly unachieveable," he said.
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"That has to be one of the loopiest statements I've ever come across in 20 years in this chamber."
He said it was a silly figure.
"You've got rocks in your head, honestly," Cr Shields told Cr Lawrence.
Councillor Dayne Gumley strongly criticised the idea.
He said when it came to climate change he was more interested in outcomes rather than "symbolic tokenism". He also questioned climate change institutions, saying there was "always an agenda that they have to push on the basis of where they get their funding from".
"The reality is without coal-fired power we can't turn the lights on at nighttime," he said.
"I'm not moving our community further in the direction Cr Lawrence wishes to take and I encourage all the other councillors to adopt the same attitude."
The deputy mayor hit back at the claims.
"These views are really, intellectually the views of cavemen and intelligent bureaucrats are working around them. Your views are really fit for the dustbin of history, that's where they will end up," Cr Lawrence said.
He said it was "alarming" to hear councillors sceptic of climate change.
The councillors were reacting to Cr Lawrence's earlier statements that he would be raising the idea of Dubbo council moving to 100 per cent of renewable energy by 2030.
"A large number of councils have made that commitment and it should be said these aren't inner city councils necessarily. These aren't councils that are bastions of socialism or radicalism," he said.
"To believe in climate science is not to be an extremist, it's actually to be a moderate, it's to be a conservative."
Cr Lawrence said anyone sprouting that climate change was rubbish was "a destructive and radical person".