Jonathan Wilkinson

Two young people who represented Canada at the recent pre-COP youth climate conference in Milan, Italy, found chaos and platitudes at an event billed as beyond all that.

One fossil fuel has remained mostly out of the spotlight so far, writes family physician Dr. Melissa Lem, unacknowledged by three of the five major parties’ platforms: thermal coal.

Canada’s National Observer asked federal Liberal Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson about critical issues in the upcoming election, and how his party would respond to the climate crisis.

The Liberal Party is promising, if re-elected, to require the oil and gas industry to curb its greenhouse gas emissions at a pace and scale needed to meet net-zero emissions by 2050, but experts and environmentalists want details before getting their hopes up.