Some conservative concerns on climate change

Climate change may be a serious ballot box issue for the youngest voters in the next federal election.

Will young voters rally?

Robin V. Sears, Contributing Columnist at the Star, offers some opinions on how Canadian conservatives are likely to feel the heat on climate change.

With the rare exception of a Brian Mulroney or a Peter Lougheed the environmental track record of Canadian conservatives is not pretty, either. Look up Mike Harris on global warming if you want a mordant chuckle. Andrew Scheer must now walk a terrifying razor blade on climate. Without greater climate credibility among young Torontonians, Montrealers and Vancouverites he will lose.
Pushing too hard on his new-found conviction about carbon, he runs into three angry Conservative premiers in his heartland, each of whom is in various stages of denial about pricing carbon. He will give a major environmental policy speech in a few days’ time. One may safely predict he will take bullets from all sides of the debate no matter what he says.1 

Schumpeter from The Economist looks at Europe's carbon crunch and concludes for industry, climate policy is a delicate balancing act.

Fighting global warming requires a much faster shift towards clean energy by all. However, European firms have come a long way in modernising their views on emissions, partly influenced by the ets. The first to be hit hard by the new reality have been the region’s utilities. A flood of renewables, especially after the acceleration of Germany’s energiewende (energy transition) in 2011, clobbered power prices and caused utilities such as Germany’s e.on and rwe to suffer years of losses. Some have since dumped their old fossil-fuel assets and embraced wind and solar, enabling them to benefit from higher carbon prices.2 

Don Pittis, Business columnist for the CBC, comments that Markets will advance the green agenda,

Conservative appeal

even if some governments lose interest.

But as 2030 approaches, if the forecast seems to be coming true, it is the more expensive oil, such as that set to be shipped via Canada's taxpayer-funded Trans Mountain pipeline, that won't find investors — and eventually won't be wanted.
"In our view, it is completely possible, and probable, that the pipeline would not deliver as much return as the government currently expects it to," said Jean-François Mercure,.3 

The conservative plan for control of carbon emissions will need to find common ground among diverse interests.

References

1	(2019, June 16). Conservatives feel heat on climate change | The Star. Retrieved June 16, 2019, from https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/06/16/conservatives-feel-heat-on-climate-change.html
2	(2019, January 11). For industry, climate policy is a delicate balancing act - The Economist. Retrieved January 16, 2019, from https://www.economist.com/business/2019/01/12/for-industry-climate-policy-is-a-delicate-balancing-act
3	(n.d.). Markets will advance green agenda — even if some governments lose .... Retrieved November 20, 2018, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/carbon-energy-technology-canada-1.4697697