OTTAWA—The head of the United Nations is urging world leaders to step up in the face of “a dramatic climate emergency” as wildfires blaze across the Arctic and the Amazon rainforest, and federal politicians in Canada squabble over whether the Liberal government’s carbon price is an essential tool or a rip-off.

Speaking at the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of melting ice in Greenland and noted the past five years were the hottest on record. He is calling on countries that signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 — including Canada — to ramp up their commitments to slash emissions at a New York conference set for Sept. 23, less than a month before Canadians go to the polls in the next federal election.

With that vote in the offing, the Conservatives pounced Monday on an apparent backtrack by the Liberal government on its future carbon pricing and rebate plan.

In June, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was unequivocal that the minimum carbon price enforced across Canada will not rise beyond $50 per tonne of emissions in 2022. “The price will not go up,” she said at the time.

Now, after an interview with the Globe and Mail over the weekend, McKenna and her office have reverted to their previous position: that the future carbon price will be set in consultation with provinces and territories as part of the Liberal government’s framework to fight climate change.

Conservative MP and finance critic Pierre Poilievre accused the Liberals of trying to fool Canadians about the cost of the carbon price that kicked in at $20 per tonne of emissions this year and is scheduled to rise each year to $50 per tonne in 2022.

He insisted the carbon price is nothing more than a tax that doesn’t actually fight climate change and is designed to take money from Canadians.

“If this was such a popular idea, why are they covering it up? Why did Catherine McKenna stand up and deny that the tax would go above $50? We know why: because they were trying to keep it secret until the election is over, when they will no longer need voters but still need their money,” Poilievre said.

Later, during her own news conference in Ottawa, McKenna pushed back against the assertion that the Liberals have some sort of “secret agenda” with the carbon price.

“Our position has not changed … There’s no intention to go up beyond that. Any decision would be made in discussions with provinces and territories, with stakeholders,” she said.

“We need to continue to fight the misinformation that is coming from the Conservative party — and even worse, the fact that they don’t recognize the fact that we’re all paying the cost of climate change right now.”

Echoing the UN’s call for increased action to reduce emissions, McKenna said it is important to do more, and said the next steps in the Liberal climate plan will be unveiled during the coming election campaign. On Monday in France, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada would contribute $15 million and water bombers to help the wildfires in the Amazon, a lush region that draws a huge amount of carbon from the atmosphere.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collective of scientists from around the world, has called for unprecedented and rapid changes to the global economy and society in order to restrain warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. To do so, the panel has called for global emissions to drop by almost half before 2030, and for annual emissions to be effectively eliminated by 2050.

The Liberal government has so far pledged to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The latest national tally shows emissions had dropped by only 2 per cent as of 2017, and the federal government’s own analysis rests on unspecified future technology and policies to close the existing shortfall between the 2030 target and current emissions projections.

The Conservatives. meanwhile, have made opposition to the federal carbon price a key priority, joining a cohort of right-leaning premiers from Edmonton to Toronto to Fredericton who have argued it is nothing more than a “job-killing” tax that will jack up the cost of everything from gasoline to groceries.

The party has vowed to scrap this pricing system as well as the associated rebates sent this year to residents in Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where 80 per cent of recipients will get back more than they pay, according to an April report from the independent parliamentary budget officer.

But even as they opposes the carbon price, the Conservatives have recognized climate change is real and needs to be addressed. Earlier this summer, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer unveiled his party’s own environmental plan that would dismantle the federal carbon price and rebate system. In its place, the Conservatives propose a suite of policies that includes a home retrofit tax credit.

They would also force heavy emitters to redirect unspecified amounts of money to green technology research and development.

Poilievre did not say why the Conservatives haven’t detailed how much their plan will cost these businesses, but stressed it would successfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The required level of investment would be worked out through consultations with environmental groups, industry and Indigenous peoples, he said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“We’ll ensure that the policy is set up in a way that encourages upfront reductions in greenhouse gases,” he said.

In July, a report by economists at the environmental policy groups EnviroEconomics and Canadians for Clean Prosperity concluded the Conservative climate plan would cost more and achieve less than the current Liberal government’s policies. Last week, Simon Fraser University professor Mark Jaccard published an analysis in Policy Options that projected the Conservative plan would actually increase emissions and fall short of the Liberals’ current policies by 100 megatonnes — leaving Canada roughly where it is now.

Poilievre said Monday that his party disagrees with Jaccard’s conclusion.

With files from The Associated Press

Read more about: