Guest blog by Joe Davidson.
Ali Wines contributed an article to the Toronto Star in July with the headline:
As the heat dome takes lives, Canadian banks must acknowledge their role in climate change
In it she wrote:
In 2016, Canada joined 197 countries around the world in signing the Paris Agreement. Since then, our Big Five banks have given over $500 billion to fossil fuel projects. That’s equivalent to $1.4 million dollars a day, for the last 1,000 years. Every one of Canada’s major banks is in the top 25 highest funders of fossil fuels globally. At the current rate of financing, it will not be possible to meet our commitments under the Paris Agreement, or halt catastrophic global warming. (article link)
Ali Wines is rightly concerned about Canada’s financial sector impeding nationwide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She is also correct in fearing for Canadians’ financial security, given that we are so heavily invested in the precarious fossil fuel industry.
Worse yet, the same financial industry players who have exposed us to these volatile, environmentally toxic holdings have set about writing the rulebook on measuring and disclosing the risk associated with them.
Created by the federal government in May, the Sustainable Finance Action Council (SFAC) has been mandated to design finance industry best practice.
SFAC members have consistently proven their willingness to prioritize short term profit over the imperative to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas output. By essentially allowing the financial sector to establish its own sustainability standards, the Canadian government is ceding to an industry which is anything but green.
We need leadership on this issue. Canada can and must do much better as we rapidly approach our global carbon budget limit.
