Toronto, Ontario — Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is taking issue with the new emissions goals that the Trudeau government recently updated, promising a return to Harper-era climate planning if he is elected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upped the country’s emissions reduction commitment from 30 percent to between 40 and 45, in a preparatory gesture leading up to Canada’s attendance at the United Nations Climate Change conference this fall.
The 30 percent goal was set by former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
O’Toole and Canada’s Conservatives have not said whether its party would continue to strive toward the Liberal goal of all zero-emissions new vehicle sales by 2030.
O’Toole says his climate change plan will return commitment rates to those set by Harper, at the time in accordance with the 2015 Paris Agreement objectives, and despite the fact that the agreement requires participating countries to put forth “increasingly ambitious climate action” every five years.
“In the 10 days after I launched our plan in April, (Trudeau) changed his targets three times with no plan,” O’Toole said at a campaign stop in Corner Brook, N.L.
