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In a virtual policy conference, 54 percent of delegates on Saturday voted against a proposal to update the policy book by adding that “climate change is real” and that the party is “willing to act” on it, according to results posted online.

The resolution also sought to place more responsibility on “highly polluting” Canadian companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support innovation in green technologies.

The vote came just a day after party leader Erin O’Toole told fellow Conservatives they must “change” if they are to expand the party’s base.

He also said the members can no longer “ignore the reality of climate change” if they hope to oust the minority government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in possible snap elections in the coming months.

“The debate is over, climate change is real,” O’Toole insisted in further remarks during a session on Saturday. “We will have a serious and comprehensive plan on climate change to reduce emissions.

“It’s important to me as a father of young children. As a member of parliament, climate change, and fighting it, is important to the Conservative Party of Canada. Younger voters expect that from us.”

Carbon tax

But the Conservative chief also reiterated his opposition to a carbon tax the Trudeau government imposed in 2019 in a move to curb pollution.

O’Toole, in the leadership position since August, offered no details of what he said would be a bold new plan to replace that tax, which is strongly opposed in western Conservative strongholds.

Conservative leaders have indicated that they have no intention at the moment to try to push out the Trudeau government – given the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic – but pressure to call early elections has recently grown.

The Conservatives currently control 120 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons with the Liberals holding 154.

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It’s an important long-term question for policymakers seeking to increase renewable electricity production, cost-effectiveness and efficiency with limited budgets, says C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, associate professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.

In a new study focused on Denmark, a global leader in wind energy—a relatively mature and low-cost renewable technology—Lin Lawell found that government policies have been the primary driver of that industry’s growth and development.

“Technological progress alone wouldn’t have led to that widespread development of wind energy in Denmark,” said Lin Lawell, the Robert Dyson Sesquicentennial Chair in Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics. “Well-designed policy may be an important contributor for nascent industries like renewables, which need to develop technology and which have broader societal benefits in terms of the environment.”

Lin Lawell is the co-author with Jonathan Cook, an associate in her DEEP-GREEN-RADAR research group, of “Wind Turbine Shutdowns and Upgrades in Denmark: Timing Decisions and the Impact of Government Policy,” published in a recent issue of The Energy Journal.

Wind turbines in many countries are approaching the end of their useful lives of roughly 20 years, Cook and Lin Lawell note, making decisions about whether to scrap or upgrade them increasingly relevant.

Denmark is ahead of that curve, having promoted wind energy since the oil crisis in the late 1970s. The country produces over 40% of its electricity from wind power and dominates other countries, the authors said, in wind deployment per capita and per gross domestic product. The Danish wind industry is highly decentralized, with 88% of the nearly 3,000 producers included in the 32-year study period from 1980-2011 operating no more than two turbines.

The researchers built a dynamic structural econometric model that incorporated the capacity, age and location of every turbine operated by small producers during that period. The model’s “bottom-up” approach enabled analysis of individual owners’ decisions to shut down, upgrade or add turbines over time, and simulated outcomes if government policies had been scaled back or were not implemented.

“Understanding the factors that influence individual decisions to invest in wind energy and how different policies can affect the timing of these decisions is important for policies both in countries that already have mature wind industries,” the researchers wrote, “as well as in regions of the world that are earlier in the process of increasing renewable electricity generation (e.g. most of the U.S.).”

Denmark since the late 1970s has offered a feed-in tariff that guaranteed producers a fixed price per amount of wind energy generated, whether turbines were new or old. Since 1999, replacement certificates have incentivized upgrades.

Both policies significantly impacted small producers’ shutdown and upgrade decisions and accelerated the development of Denmark’s wind industry, the scholars concluded. Without them, the model showed most small-scale wind producers would have left the industry by 2011, concentrating production in larger wind farms.

However, the analysis determined that replacement certificates were far more cost-effective than the feed-in tariff in encouraging small producers to add or upgrade turbines, helping Denmark reduce its carbon emissions.

The study estimated the Danish government spent $3.5 billion on the feed-in tariff program over the study period, and as much as $114 million on the replacement certificates. Together, the two programs reduced carbon emissions by 57.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

“One was just really expensive at doing it,” Lin Lawell said. “Both the cost per metric ton of carbon dioxide avoided, and the cost per percentage point increase in payoff to the turbine owner, are much lower for the replacement certificate program.”

For every million metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided, the researchers estimated the feed-in tariff cost Danish taxpayers $61.8 million, compared to $2.2 million or less for the replacement certificates.

Cook and Lin Lawell said their analysis offers lessons about the role of government policy in incentivizing the development of renewables and about which policies generate the most bang for the buck.

“Our application to the Danish wind industry,” they wrote, “has important implications for the design of renewable energy policies worldwide.”

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His policy would have returned migrants back over the border while they sought a legal right to stay in the US.

The legal defeat comes as migrant numbers at the US-Mexico border surged to their highest since 2008.

Mr Trump was said to be livid after US immigration officials estimated border apprehensions in March had topped 100,000.

The San Francisco ninth district judge’s order on Monday against the migrant policy is not due to go into effect until this Friday, giving US officials a chance to appeal.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which implements Mr Trump’s immigration directives, is in turmoil following a major shake-up.

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen quit on Sunday after being summoned to the White House by the president.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley called on Mr Trump on Monday to halt the leadership purge at the agency.

The senior senator told the Washington Post he was “very, very concerned” about reports of possible further DHS dismissals.

“The president has to have some stability and particularly with the number one issue that he’s made for his campaign,” Mr Grassley said.

“He’s pulling the rug out from the very people that are trying to help him accomplish his goal.”

Last week Mr Trump rescinded his own nomination of Ronald Vitiello as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said: “It’s time to do things a little differently.

“The president’s looking around to reshape his team so he can have the people in place to carry out his agenda.”

There are also reports that the president is preparing to toughen his stance on immigration.

According to the New York Times, Mr Trump is considering implementing further limits on asylum seekers, ending birthright citizenship, and closing ports of entry at the Mexican border.

But Mr Trump denied on Tuesday reports that his administration was planning once again to separate families caught crossing the border.

“We are not looking to do it,” he said.

He added: “Once you don’t have it [child separation], that’s why you see many more people coming. They’re coming like it’s a picnic because let’s go to Disneyland.”

More than 2,700 immigrant children were separated from their parents last year under a so-called zero tolerance US policy to prosecute anyone caught crossing the border illegally.

According to US media, the White House has recently been considering a “binary choice” policy.

This would give migrant parents awaiting immigration hearings two options: agree for their child to be held separately, or be detained together, possibly indefinitely, until their court date.

A 1997 court decision known as the Flores agreement states that immigrant children are only allowed to be held for 20 days.

The Trump administration has reportedly drafted a regulation to change these rules, an official told the Axios news website, so that the government could detain children for longer periods of time.

Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller is said to be encouraging the president to adopt an increasingly hardline stance on immigration.

Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Monday called Mr Miller “a white nationalist” on Twitter.

Meanwhile, amid an ongoing debate about immigration on both sides of the Atlantic, former President Barack Obama told young people at a town hall meeting in Berlin, Germany: “We can’t label everybody disturbed by immigration as racist.”

He also said immigrants should be encouraged to learn the language of their adopted country.

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