MPs with thoughts to share on the conclusions of the latest report from the UN climate panel will soon get the chance to air them publicly on the House record.

Last week, the government served notice that it intended to put forward a motion that would allow the House “to debate the rising climate emergency across Canada,” which was dutifully filed by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna on Monday.

If passed, it would have the House formally declare that Canada “is in a national climate emergency which requires, as a response, that Canada commit to meeting its national emissions target under the Paris Agreement and to making deeper reductions in line with the … objective of holding global warming below two degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

The motion comes on the heels of a report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate on the existential threat posed by global warming.

Also on Monday, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh hit the House foyer to announce that his party would be devoting its upcoming opposition day to a competing motion that would also declare “an environment and climate emergency” and commit Canada to increasing its “ambition” for emissions reduction in recognition of the new 1.5 degrees goal. However, it would also call on the government to pull the plug on the Transmountain pipeline project and cutting off all federal fossil fuel subsidies.

So, what’s the strategy? For the New Democrats, it will give them a prime time parliamentary platform to promote the environmental policies likely to be front-and-centre in their eventual election platform while simultaneously forcing the Liberals to vote against the motion due to the deal-breaker clause on the Transmountain pipeline, which effectively eliminates any avenue that would allow the government to formally back it.

For their part, the Liberals are clearly aiming to frame the debate on their motion as an endorsement of their past, present and ongoing action on the environment.

You can also expect them to point out — repeatedly — the continuing absence of a comprehensive climate policy from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, all the while quietly hoping that McKenna’s motion will still range too far outside the Conservative comfort zone for MPs to support it. If that does happen, expect the Liberals to immediately frame it as more evidence that neither Scheer nor his team takes climate change seriously.

Barring a last-minute schedule tweak, the New Democrat motion is poised to make it onto the House agenda before McKenna’s pitch: the New Democrats are currently slated to hold their next — and, given the rapidly approaching summer recess, likely final pre-election — supply debate tomorrow.

As for the government’s proposal, they’ll have to wait until at least Thursday to kick off that debate, although depending on how long it carries on, both motions could, in theory, end up in the same voting queue on Thursday night.

It’s more likely, though, that the Liberals will ultimately have to use their House majority to impose a hard deadline for a vote, which would likely not take place until after MPs return from the upcoming weeklong Victoria Day recess.

In any case, if there’s anyone out there with a hankering for a dress rehearsal for the fall election, the duelling climate change debates should offer a pretty good preview of what we’re likely to hear from the parties over the summer — and on the hustings next fall.

The full text of both motions as they appear on today’s notice paper:

May 13, 2019 — Mr. Singh (Burnaby South):

That the House call on the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change to declare an environment and climate emergency following the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and urge the government to bring forward a climate action strategy that: (a) prioritizes reconciliation with Indigenous peoples; (b) invests in a transition that leaves no workers or communities behind; (c) increases the ambition of its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets to avoid a more than 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in global warming, as recommended by the IPCC report; (d) includes robust rules for implementing the Paris Agreement; (e) prescribes transparency and accountability mechanisms to address climate change; (f) does not proceed with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project; (g) immediately eliminates all federal fossil fuel subsidies, including through Export Development Canada funding; and (h) integrates human health into Canada’s climate commitments.

No. 29 — May 13, 2019 — The Minister of Environment and Climate Change:

That the House recognize that: (a) climate change is a real and urgent crisis, driven by human activity, that impacts the environment, biodiversity, Canadians’ health, and the Canadian economy; (b) Canadians are feeling the impacts of climate change today, from flooding, wildfires, heat waves and other extreme weather events which are projected to intensify in the future; (c) climate change impacts communities across Canada, with coastal, northern and Indigenous communities particularly vulnerable to its effects; and (d) action to support clean growth and meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all parts of the economy are necessary to ensure a safer, healthier, cleaner and more prosperous future for our children and grandchildren; and, therefore, that the House declare that Canada is in a national climate emergency which requires, as a response, that Canada commit to meeting its national emissions target under the Paris Agreement and to making deeper reductions in line with the Agreement’s objective of holding global warming below two degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.