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

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 …