Last week at the Investor Summit on Responsible Investing in Vancouver, Barb Zvan, the President and CEO of the University Pension Plan, said she hopes news about Canada’s sustainable finance taxonomy will be out by the end of the month. A taxonomy has the potential to clarify what activities qualify as green or transition investments,…

Nobody should doubt just how much influence Canada’s big banks have over national politics. The Globe and Mail has reported on the direct access that bank CEO’s have with the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance with whom they share their views on everything from covid restrictions to the use of the Emergencies Act. In…

2022 was Investors for Paris Compliance’s first full calendar year, and a full one it was. In general, we’re helping to fill a large and growing gap in the investor ecosystem as more Canadian companies make net zero pledges, yet with few people holding those companies accountable for following through. Here are some highlights and…

RBC finally came out with its initial 2030 targets today. There will be a lot of justified commentary on the weakness of its intensity-based targets, but RBC also released something else - a new framework for sustainable finance. We’ll take some minor credit for this release, although not for its content. You may remember that…

Insurance companies are on the front lines of the climate crisis. This is most evident with property insurers who end up picking up the tab following extreme weather events - hurricanes, fires, floods, etc - and is behind the reason that these companies are lobbying for better adaptation policies in Canada. But it’s also true…

Today the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) updated its guidance regarding Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs), among other things. You may remember the controversies regarding the use of SLBs in Canada by companies like Enbridge and Tamarack Valley Energy who used proceeds from SLBs to expand fossil fuel infrastructure and development – thereby increasing emissions. Unfortunately, ICMA…

Canada’s major banks have committed to going “net zero” by 2050 in their financed emissions. To date these commitments have been voluntary, with serious questions arising about whether the banks will ever be inclined to leave money on the table made by financing the fossil fuel industry. In terms of implementation, we have seen relatively…

https://youtu.be/UTD52D8Z6MM

Recently we filed a shareholder resolution at RBC asking management to update the banks’ “sustainable finance” practices to end greenwashing. The vote got 9%, which seems low but is actually a pretty good result for a resolution first time out, particularly given that the deck is stacked against any resolution passing. But now what? RBC…

Today CIBC released its net zero update, including interim 2030 targets for oil and gas. Said Matt Price, Director of Corporate Engagement of Investors for Paris Compliance: “We’re disappointed that CIBC joined other Canadian banks in failing to tackle rising financed emissions with weak intensity targets for oil and gas. CIBC more than doubled its…

The backroom politics around defining “sustainable” finance in Canada continue, with the vast majority of people shut out of this critical public policy issue. You may remember earlier chapters of this saga as the CSA Group convened industry and finance stakeholders behind closed doors to try to define a “transition” taxonomy for Canada but failed…