Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021. Trudeau has launched a series of climate measures since he was first elected in 2015, but his Liberal Party is trailing in the polls. Article content A few days after Donald Trump won the United States election, I was at the UN climate COP in Azerbaijan where I ran into the head of a climate change think-tank who said something unexpected. Article content Article content He told me his U.S. team had adopted the same communications guidelines the group used in China , where independent research groups tread carefully to avoid rattling Beijing’s authoritarian regime. His U.S. staff had to ensure all public comments were politically neutral, and avoid any moves that could be construed as overt attacks on the administration. Article content His words were a reminder of how fast climate politics have shifted in the U.S., where Trump is expected to gut a string of Biden era environmental achievements. But the Azerbaijan COP also highlighted this: the U.S. may not be alone. Elections are due or possible in at least four other sizeable economies where relatively green governing parties face rivals that want to rein in, water down or reverse climate action. Consider Canada, where an election is due by October and polls show Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government trailing far behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. Trudeau has launched a series of climate measures since he was first elected in 2015, including a 2019 system to put a rising price on carbon that has been hailed as a progressive green policy poster child and a top driver of projected emission cuts. Poilievre’s repeated calls to “axe the tax” are central to his push for a “ carbon tax election ” over a scheme […]