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…

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…

Today Scotiabank released its Net-Zero Pathways Report outlining its next steps regarding its net zero commitment. Reaction quote: “There’s nothing in these plans that will see Scotiabank reduce the tens of billions it pours into fossil fuels each year. In fact, by relying on intensity targets, the bank is allowing itself to expand this funding,…

Today the Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) released its next steps on its climate plan as part of its Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting. Summary quote: “Unfortunately, TD has left the door firmly open to financing fossil fuel expansion by setting only weak intensity-based 2030 targets for energy and power generation. It’s unclear…

Today the Bank of Montreal (BMO) released the next steps of its climate commitments, a week after RBC. Here is our reaction, with some high-level highlights: "BMO moved to the head of the pack of big Canadian banks with their commitment to reduce financed emissions in the oil and gas sector in absolute and not…

It’s almost enough to make you think the bank doesn’t take shareholder opinion seriously. Rather than issue a specific defense of how its “sustainable investment” practices allow it to fund fossil fuel expansion and projects opposed by Indigenous peoples, RBC instead answered (p. 96 here) the resolution we filed with vague generalities and platitudes, leaving…

Today the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) released the next steps of its climate plans as part of its Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) 2021 report. While there are some positive steps, overall RBC is falling behind in its efforts by failing to set 2030 targets for carbon-intensive sectors and by omitting the majority…

When is sustainable finance not sustainable finance? This sounds like a nerdy and unfunny joke, but let’s give the punchline anyway: When it’s given to companies increasing emissions during the climate crisis. That’s the crux of a shareholder resolution we filed with RBC this year that will go to a vote at its April 7…

Today the German group Urgewald released a bombshell of a report on coal financing, showing that banks provided loans and underwriting of US$1.5 trillion to companies on the Global Coal Exit List over the last two years, while institutional bondholders and shareholders held US$1.2 trillion as of November 2021. The report is shocking, demonstrating that…

Over the past few months, we’ve engaged each of the five largest Canadian banks on their climate work. We’ve filed a few shareholder proposals, at least one of which will be going to a vote (more on that soon). And we produced this best practices report which we will use to benchmark the banks after…