Aaron Hawkins, who lost the Dunedin mayoralty last year after one term, implied the draft plan could be struggling to secure political support, which he appeared to put down to inadequate leadership.
That led to deputy mayor Sophie Barker criticising Mr Hawkins’ understanding of the situation and his grasp of governance.
"Mr Hawkins is drawing a long bow to make assumptions about the political will for emissions-cutting from the simple delay of a report," Cr Barker said.
The draft plan was to be considered by the council on Tuesday but it was withdrawn from the agenda.
"A couple of the key staff involved in this work are away sick, and we have received feedback from councillors that it would be best to consider this report alongside another on the costs of implementing the plan, which is also being prepared," a council spokesman said ahead of the meeting.
The two reports would be considered either next month or in October, council chief executive Sandy Graham said.
The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and, when Mr Hawkins was mayor in 2021, it resourced what he described as a small policy team to work out how Dunedin could achieve a target of net-zero carbon by 2030.
This team produced a comprehensive draft report laying out the sweeping transformation that would be required in sectors ranging from transport and energy efficiency in buildings to promoting "strengthened", locally focused neighbourhoods.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Hawkins said the issues could come back to the council on October 31.
"Why? It seems obvious from the outside that the plan doesn’t have enough support for it to be adopted, which is a spectacular failure of political management," he said.
"More alarming is the new desire to align strategic decisions with the budget decisions required to implement them."
The reasons for doing this were "as cynical as they are obvious" — using cost pressures or austerity to "drive down the ambition of your strategic objectives".
Cr Barker said it was prudent to line up any plan with implementation pathways and costs.
"To say it’s alarming to align strategic decisions with budget decisions shows a lack of governance understanding — that’s the whole point of the governance process," she said.
"If they don’t align, then we don’t get anything done."
Cr Barker said the council had continued to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation work and supported the climate action plan development, as well as adding a climate adaptation plan.
She had frequently asked about progress on developing the draft zero-carbon plan.
"It needs a robust implementation plan that’s clear about the effort and investment required from the city and who is responsible for each action."
Mr Radich’s line of argument was more intriguing.
"It is not appropriate to spend hours discussing a draft that has taken four years to produce but only had a limited number of hours of scrutiny by the elected members," he said.
Mr Radich noted pivotal staff were not able to attend the council meeting, as well as three councillors.
"Additionally, there were many questions tendered in advance of [Tuesday’s] meeting, so it is a far better thing to wait until attendance can be optimised and questions minimised by answers in advance."
