Climate Change Denial in the Election

Reports of climate change denial politics prior to the September 2021 Federal Election are extremely disheartening when Canada requires immediate and comprehensive government action to win the Good War against the Climate Crisis.

A Strong Climate Policy

 

A tweet by Steven Guilbeault

[@s_guilbeault] identifies more than a dozen election candidate responses and statements that resonate with the theme of climate change denial.

Erin O’Toole has made the Conservative party a home for dinosaurs. These examples are just scratching the surface of the climate change denial rampant in his party.1

In the Globe and Mail, Eric Reguly writes that the rush to net-zero could hit the economy as hard as the 1973-74 oil crisis. In a recent note, the French economist Jean Pisani-Ferry, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the European University Institute near Florence, said that “fundamentally … decarbonization amounts to putting a price on a resource that used to be free.”

The faster the transition to net-zero, the greater the economic disruption. But a fast transition might be required to prevent catastrophic climate change. Under that scenario, highly polluting industries might have to be sent to the scrap heap virtually overnight. “Procrastination has reduced the chances of engineering an orderly transition,” Mr. Pisani-Ferry said. Another risk is rising public debt. Governments will have to subsidize the transition and support employees who are made redundant. Debt-to-GDP ratios, which are already soaring to finance pandemic expenditures, could reach astronomical levels. Some of what Mr. Pisani-Ferry said can be challenged. His report’s true value is his small but compelling effort to end the fantasy that achieving net-zero emissions will be a net jobs generator, so stop worrying. The effort could be hellish. We got started too late and our global house needs emergency repairs.2

In the upcoming election, Climate Champions need our vote. An emergency response is necessary and delay greatly increases the cost of winning the battle against this existential threat.

 

References

1	Guilbeault S.[@s_guilbeault].(2021, August 30).Erin O’Toole has made the Conservative party a home for dinosaurs. These examples are just scratching the surface of the climate change denial rampant in his party. [Tweet].Tweetdeck.https://twitter.com/s_guilbeault/status/1432316750222315526
2	(2021, August 27). The rush to net-zero could hit the economy as hard as the 1973-74 oil. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-rush-to-net-zero-could-hit-the-economy-as-hard-as-the-1973-74-oil/