VANCOUVER—The last time Canada had a Conservative government, the country known for its pristine wilderness became a climate pariah on the world stage, winning the satirical “Colossal Fossil” award several years in a row.

Handed out by a network of international environmental organizations, the award is meant to shame countries that undermine global climate talks, and by 2013, Canada was “in a league of its own for its total lack of credibility on climate action,” said Christian Holz, the then-executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.

That year — two years after pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, a global agreement to cut emissions — Canada won a new “Lifetime Unachievement” award.

At home and abroad, the Conservative government faced a barrage of criticism for inaction on climate change.

Now, in the midst of the 2019 election, experts say the Conservative plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions is the least aggressive of the climate platforms put forward by the four main political parties vying for power.

But there was a time when conservatives in Canada were recognized for their environmental leadership, and some political observers say solutions from the political right, not just the left, are needed today to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

“In many ways, Canada is the poster child of how the impacts of a changing climate are playing out,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a Canadian climate scientist who was recently awarded United Nations highest environmental honour.

Sea level rise is putting communities at risk on both the east and west coasts, heavy rains are becoming more intense and contributing to record breaking floods, and heat waves are becoming more severe, she said.

“We need every party to offer us robust solutions that are consistent with their ideology and values,” she said, adding that it’s disappointing to see the Conservatives pay “lip service” to the issue instead.

Thirty-two years ago, it was a Progressive Conservative government leading the charge to combat a global environmental threat.

Tom McMillan, who served as environment minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government in the 1980s, shepherded in what is still considered one of the world’s most successful international treaties: the Montreal Protocol.

The 1987 treaty, signed in Montreal, was negotiated in response to the thinning of the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays. Initially, 24 countries, Canada among them, signed on. Today, all United Nations members have committed to phase out ozone-depleting substances commonly used in aerosols and air conditioning.

McMillan told Star Vancouver late last month that he laments that the Conservative Party’s climate platform “is not more specific and that it’s not more courageous.”

However, he does credit the party for being “lights years” ahead of where it was under Stephen Harper’s leadership when it comes to climate change.

“The party has made some progress,” though it’s still not the platform he would have put forward, he said.

The Conservatives have not committed to a specific greenhouse gas emissions reductions target, but they do say their “Real Plan to Protect Our Environment” is Canada’s best shot at meeting the government’s current pledge to cut emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The party says it would do away with the Liberal carbon tax, which currently adds 4.42 cents per litre to the price of gasoline and is set to increase annually until 2022.

Instead, the Conservatives would force heavy emitters that fail to meet emission standards to invest in green technology. The party would also scrap clean fuel standards, saying it would work with provinces and territories to increase availability of renewable fuels.

A Conservative government would also invest $900 million on home retrofit tax rebates and $250 million in a green technology and innovation fund to support Canadian entrepreneurs that could leverage four times as much private sector investment.

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The plan, which focuses on incentives over taxes or regulation, has come under fire for being more likely to increase emissions than plans put forward by the Liberals, NDP, or Greens.

In a widely cited analysis published by Policy Options, energy economist Mark Jaccard concluded Canada’s emissions in 2030 would be 100 megatonnes higher under the Conservative’s plan than they would be under existing Liberal policies. Though neither simulation met Canada’s international commitments.

“In reality, carbon prices must rise or regulations for technology and energy must become more stringent. There is no other way to significantly decarbonize the economy,” Jaccard wrote.

Ed Fast, the Conservative’s “shadow” environment minister, says his party has concluded that “you cannot tax your way to a cleaner environment.”

“We are going to establish tough standards, but what we’re doing is we’re leaving the money in the hands of the businesses to invest in the technologies that they believe are best suited for their industry,” he said.

Fast said there needs to be a greater focus on technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, that could ultimately help slash emissions around the world.

The Conservatives, he said, see oil and gas forming part of the global energy mix for many years to come, but carbon capture and storage, he argued, can help reduce the climate impact of fossil fuels.

“Humans do contribute to climate change and to the degree that we can assist in reducing our contribution to that problem, I think it’s incumbent upon us to seek those solutions,” he said.

McMillan said he believes taxation has to form part of the response to the climate change and noted that the Tory party of old was not “hostile to taxes.”

“For the party to enshrine in its environmental policies now an anti-tax ethos, is to me just ahistorical, it’s not consistent with the very soul of the party historically,” he said.

Ultimately, McMillan said the climate fight will require major cooperation between the parties — and if the Conservatives win on October 21, the other three parties will have to pressure the Scheer government to adopt some of their climate policies.

“The issue is just so serious and I think the threats so imminent and the consequences of inaction so dire, that the parties are going to have to come together and work in unison on a pan-partisan basis,” he said.

With files from Alex Ballingall

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