In 2021, there was nearly a consensus on climate change. In 2025, Carney and Poilievre are far apart

At his first rally of the election campaign, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told his supporters that the Liberal government had driven investment away from Canada by pursuing an agenda of "radical net-zero environmental extremism." 

Days later, at a rally in Fredericton, Poilievre said Liberal Leader Mark Carney was part of "the radical net-zero movement," which, Poilievre suggested, meant "net-zero growth, net-zero jobs, net-zero paycheque."

In the discussion about combating climate change, "net zero" refers to the emissions target the world's nations must collectively achieve to curb the tide of global warming.

When 196 countries negotiated the Paris accords in 2015, they agreed they would aim to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an expert body established by the United Nations, subsequently estimated that global greenhouse gas emissions would need to reach net zero by the middle of this century to stay within that limit  — that is, the total amount of emissions produced by human activities must not exceed the amount that can be absorbed by nature and captured through technology.

According to the UN, 107 countries, including Canada, have made net-zero pledges. In 2021, the leaders of the G7, including former prime minister Justin Trudeau, committed to reach "net zero no later than 2050."

Canada's target was written into law with the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, which passed Parliament in 2021. And in the federal election campaign that year, all major parties were committed to pursuing net zero.

"I want to see a made-in-Canada solution for net zero by 2050," said Erin O'Toole, the Conservative Party's leader at the time.

Four years later, the current leader of the Conservative Party is striking a very different tone.

The Conservative campaign did not respond to an email asking whether Poilievre would officially abandon the federal government's net-zero target. Poilievre previously suggested he was waiting until the campaign before he would explain how a Conservative government would combat climate change, but halfway through this campaign he has yet to detail his approach.

At some point in the next two-and-a-half weeks it might become possible to say more about how a Conservative government would reduce Canada's emissions and by how much, but the available evidence suggests the Conservative Party's position on climate policy has shifted markedly from where it was in 2021.

As a result, the Liberals and Conservatives may now be as far apart as they have ever been on the issue — even while the Liberals have arguably moderated their own position.

The Conservatives have at least been clear that they oppose a number of the policies implemented or pursued by the Liberal government.

Poilievre has long opposed the consumer carbon tax, of course. But days before this campaign he announced that a Conservative government would also repeal the federal framework for pricing industrial emissions. He also opposes the Liberal government's clean fuel regulations and the proposed cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector. The Conservatives have also criticized the federal government's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales targets and clean electricity regulations.

O'Toole's Conservative platform in 2021 included a consumer carbon price, an industrial price, a ZEV mandate and a low-carbon fuel standard. While O'Toole wouldn't commit to meeting the Liberal government's existing 2030 target for reducing emissions (a 40 per cent reduction below 2005 levels), he did say he would hit the previous Conservative government's target (a 30 per cent reduction below 2005 levels).