Top candidates speak fossil fuels as a climate patient

Since the threat to the US President Donald Trump Kanada’s federal election agenda littered, the question of the country’s contribution was largely overshadowed to global warming.

The two main competitors are pushing plans for a new energy infrastructure, while the country tries to wipe off on the dependency on the United States.

Mark Carney’s liberal promise to make Canada a global superpower in both conventional and green energy. The conservatives under Pierre Poilievre want to revitalize the oil and gas sector and scrap the industrial carbon tax.

It is a major shift compared to the 2021 elections when the environment cited the list of voter problems.

In this coordination there was a consensus between the two major parties that Canada should quickly pass into a green economy, with a net zero emission law being adopted in June of this year.

This feeling of unity is long gone.

Carney, who became leader of the Liberals and Prime Minister in early March, has a long track record as an international advocate of climate change.

He was not only governor of the Bank of England, but also a special representative of the United Nations for Climate and Finance and Co-Chairman of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, one of the great results of COP26.

However, his first campaign as Prime Minister was to remove the carbon levy of consumers.

The tax – a signature climate policy of the governing liberals – was introduced in 2019 and an additional fee was charged for consumers with coal, oil or gas products.

It was unpopular and for the conservatives it became an easy goal of guilt for the increasing cost of living in recent years. Poilievre even tried to paint his rival as a “carbon tax carney”.

Some observers believe that the cancellation of the tax was a clever political step, others believe that it was a mistake.

“By making one of your first movements to remove the carbon prize, accept this narrative that climate change policy costs us too much money and is not good for us if this is actually not the case,” said Catherine Abreu, the director of the International Climate Politics Hub and member of the Canadian Net -zero stock.

“I think there is a missed opportunity to set a new narrative framework in the elections.”

Carney’s choice for energy is to transform Canada into “a leading world’s leading superpower into clean and conventional energy”.

He emphasizes his pragmatic approach and his campaign talks about quickly pursuing projects for green energy and the promotion of green transport and buildings without giving too many details. He also demanded investments in technologies such as Carbon Capture.

There are other important factors that have contributed to cooling some of the Carney climate rhetoric.

Opinion surveys show that the Canadian concerns regarding the climate have come to the fore since the end of 2023 concerns about rising prices, energy and housing costs.

War in Ukraine has also laid new natural natural resources in oil, gas and critical minerals in the country.

“We have a parade of geopolitical allies on our doorstep and say: We want their rocks to be the geopolitical safe prerequisite provider of primary resource raw materials instead of Russia,” said Mark Winfield, professor at the Faculty of the Environment and Urban Change at York University in the Toronto.

“And this has created a different kind of dynamic that was not available in previous elections.”

Pierre Poilievre is the man who wants to replace Carney as a PM.

It runs in relation to living costs and considers himself for tougher guidelines for law and order and what he sees as “awakened” cultural questions.

Poilievre, whose party has a strong voter base in high-energy regions of the country, urges a large extension of the oil and gas industry and the removal of the CO2 tax on the industry.

While he has committed to whether he supports Canada’s net zero goals, he argued that it would be better for the world if India and other Asian countries were to replace “dirty coal” with cleaner Canadian oil and gas.

According to Prof. Winfield, the conservative suggestions for increasing oil and gas for voters should prove attractive, even if the merits of production are not correct for the exam.

He told the BBC that it was more “at the level of the principal level in response to Trump, in contrast to any real considerations about the effects on the climate and whether this is actually economically viable”.

Regardless of the climate or energy, the main question in the minds of the voters in this choice is in this choice, which guide is best placed in order to deal with the combative US president.

This is particularly important when it comes to the oil and gas industry.

Canada is America’s largest foreign oil provider with around 90% of crude oil production south of the border, and the effects of energy tariffs could certainly be catastrophic for jobs and the economy.

“Our relationship with the USA has changed completely,” said Carney last week in the first of two election debates.

“The pipelines are a national security problem for us.”

This concern about the dependence on US dependencies has revived the interest in pipelines, which would move oil and gas from the western provinces in which they are mainly produced to the east, where they could be exported to new overseas stores.

An earlier attempt that was put up with the Energy East pipeline called the Energy East pipeline in 2017 due to a number of factors, including violent opposition from some regions of the country and regulatory hurdles.

In this campaign, both the liberals and the conservatives promise to follow “energy corridors” quickly, even though Carney has freaked out his support for pipelines, Knowing that they are deeply unpopular with environmentalists.

He tries to go a fine border between the defense of Canada as a nation that is threatened by Trump and take measures against a warming climate.

The Canada of the Insurance Office reported that in 2024 there were $ 8.5 billion in the weather -related insured losses ($ 6.1 billion; GBP), triple the number for 2023.

And while all two election leaders come up with an important role in fossil fuels in the Canadian economy, this approach will conflict with the country’s climate obligations.

Yves-François Blanchet, head of the Québécois block, a federal party based in Quebec, has accused the couple of “denial about climate change”.

“I’m sorry to overthrow your party boys, but they tell fairy tales” about clean oil and gas, he said in the debates of the past week.

Canada promised on the international stage by 2030 to 2030 to contain carbon emissions by 40-45%.

From 2023, the carbon output decreased only by 8.5%.

If you win the choice, you have a real challenge to squad this circle.

The Canadians go to the surveys on April 28th.