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In the absence of the plan’s details, we are left with the drum-roll.

One interesting thing about the Conservative climate change strategy has been the focus on the Liberal government’s projected failure to meet its Paris emission reduction targets.

As my colleague Marie Danielle Smith noted in a story based on an internal Conservative memo, the communications plan aims to make people aware that Canada is not on pace to meet its Paris commitment of a 30-per-cent cut in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.

The “#Not-As-Advertised” campaign says the Liberal carbon tax will have to go a lot higher if Justin Trudeau wants to meet his Paris targets. “He knows that but isn’t telling you,” says one of the campaign’s social media posts.

With impeccable timing, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux, released a new report Thursday calculating exactly how high the carbon tax will have to go to meet the Paris commitment of a reduction to emissions of 513 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030 (from 732 megatonnes in 2005).

Giroux and his colleagues estimate that under current policies and measures, emissions will fall 79 megatonnes short of the target in 2030.

Photo by Stan Behal/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

To bridge that gap, the PBO estimates that an additional carbon price rising from $6 per tonne to $52 per tonne in 2030 would be required. That would be in addition to the $50-per-tonne scheduled for 2022 in provinces covered by the federal backstop — an explicit carbon price of $102 per tonne. For perspective, that represents an additional cost of 23 cents for a litre of gas.