Greenpeace volunteers have been having some fun with big bank ad campaigns in Toronto this spring.
Street ninja ad busting in full effect! Banks need to stop funding the climate crisis. Plain and simple. That is the message. @GreenpeaceCA #stopthemoneypipeline #rbciskillingme #fundfuturesnotpipelines #keepitintheground pic.twitter.com/RmfX8WgnGb
— GreenpeaceVolunteers (@GPCvolunteers) June 13, 2022
The student society at the University of British Columbia has ended a partnership with RBC due to its lead role in funding the climate crisis.
Big news! The @AMS_UBC has confirmed it is ending its eHub partnership with RBC. This sends a powerful message that @RBC cannot buy young people’s support to cover up its $263 billion in climate-wrecking fossil fuel investments. Please see our statement. 1/-#DivestRBC #DefundCGL
— Climate Justice UBC (UBCc350) (@cjubc) June 10, 2022
The RBC Branch at UBC is still open, however there have been numerous actions shutting it down over the spring and summer, as reported here.
Here was Climate Justice UBC’s statement after the decision:
We are very excited that the AMS has ended its partnership with RBC for the eHub Get Seeded
Program. As young people across the country are increasingly aware, RBC is the number one
lender to fossil fuels in Canada, having lent $262 billion CAD since 2016. RBC is also the lead
financier of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline and a lead underwriter for the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Both projects lack consent from Indigenous nations along the pipeline routes, thus violating the
principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent under the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The AMS’s decision to not renew its partnership with RBC sends a strong message that students
will not stand by corporations that endanger our future and violate Indigenous rights. As long as
RBC continues to fuel climate disaster and enable colonial violence, they can expect to face
reluctance from students to enter partnerships or otherwise be associated.
Read the full statement here.
This week, in solidarity with Indigenous land defenders, climate organizers and communities brought a clear message straight to Royal Bank of Canada executives at RBC’s most prominent sponsored event the RBC Canadian Open: end fossil fuel finance and invest in a climate-safe future.
Following an action on Monday, and a disruption of the RBC Canadian Open on Friday, hundreds of people gathered today for a “Rave Against RBC” outside the 18th hole within earshot of RBC executives’ private box where they host high-profile clients.
Organized by youth-led Banking on a Better Future, Stand.earth, and hundreds rising in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en and Indigenous land defenders, participants featured DJs and dancing, banners and art reading “RBC: Canada’s #1 fossil bank,” and a 4.5 metre (15 foot) inflatable of RBC CEO Dave McKay on a bed of flames reading “RBC is Burning Our Future.” Digital ads targeting RBC’s financing of fossil fuels bombarded PGA spectators throughout the week.
“Publicly, RBC talks a big game about climate action and Indigenous reconciliation. In reality, just this month, they’ve proudly bankrolled new financing for fossil fuel projects, making climate chaos like fires, floods, and deadly heat worse,” said Sarah Beuhler, Stand.earth Climate Finance Campaigner. “RBC CEO Dave McKay can’t ignore a 15 foot inflatable of himself, and he certainly can’t ignore the billions his bank finances in climate destruction and Indigenous rights-violating projects.”
RBC is Canada’s #1 fossil bank and the fifth worst offender in the world, financing coal, oil, tar sands, and gas to the tune of $262 billion since the Paris agreement was signed in 2016.
As RBC greenwashes its climate commitments and touts Indigenous reconciliation rhetoric, the bank is financing toxic fossil fuel projects around the world: from Coastal GasLink and Alberta tar sands, to a new LNG terminal in Louisiana, and the East African Crude Oil and TransMountain pipelines – carbon bombs set to trigger catastrophic climate and economic breakdown.
RBC is increasing financing of the dirtiest fossil fuel – tar sands; quietly bankrolling the TransMountain Pipeline; and abetting the world’s longest proposed oil pipeline in East Africa.
Right now in so-called British Columbia, Canada, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Indigenous land defenders face a stand-off with the RBC-financed Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and escalating police harassment, surveillance, and brutality on the territory. The RBC-financed project violates Wet’suwet’en rights and title, and lacks consent of Hereditary chiefs, who have been resisting the project for a decade.
There’s a growing and powerful movement rising in solidarity with Indigenous land defenders. Last month, members of the public submitted a Competition Bureau complaint, demanding an investigation into RBC’s misleading advertising about the company’s commitments to climate action while continuing to finance fossil fuel development.
Over 65+ Hollywood celebrities, hundreds international justice organizations, and thousands of communities are demanding RBC end fossil fuel finance.
Today, Indigenous land defenders, climate organizers, and communities brought a clear message straight to Royal Bank of Canada executives at the annual Canadian PGA Open: end fossil fuel finance and invest in a climate-safe future.
Photos and videos available here.
Dozens of participants gathered outside of the Open with billboards reading “RBC is Canada’s biggest funder of fossil fuels,” “RBC finances climate destruction,” “RBC finances Indigenous rights violations,” and more. Communities distributed flyers about RBC’s fossil fuel finance to spectators as they entered the Open, and an electric truck broadcasting videos of actor and activist Mark Ruffalo calling on RBC CEO Dave McKay to end fossil fuel finance is on-site all day today.
While floods, fires, deadly heat and pollution endanger the lives and livelihoods of communities across Canada and around the world, the Royal Bank of Canada continues to bankroll the fuel for the fire. RBC is Canada’s #1 fossil bank and the fifth worst funder of fossil fuels in the world, financing coal, tar sands, oil and gas to the tune of $262 billion since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016.
As RBC greenwashes its climate commitments and touts Indigenous reconciliation rhetoric, the bank is financing toxic fossil fuel expansion projects around the world that our climate cannot afford: from Coastal GasLink and Alberta tar sands, to the East African Crude Oil and TransMountain pipelines – carbon bombs set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown while trampling Indigenous and local community rights.
In the face of the climate crisis UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently told the world “investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.” Yet nothing seems to stop RBC from pouring more fuel on the fire.
“RBC holding a golf tournament while the RCMP harass and surveill First Nations leaders is corporate colonialism at its finest. Every single one of us has a responsibility to rise in solidarity with the Indigenous land defenders, and demand RBC stop financing this destruction,” said Sarah Beuhler, Stand.earth Climate Finance Campaigner.
RBC is increasing financing of the dirtiest fossil fuel – tar sands; quietly bankrolling the TransMountain Pipeline; and abetting the world’s longest proposed oil pipeline in East Africa.
Right now in so-called British Columbia, Canada, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Indigenous land defenders face a stand-off with the RBC-financed Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and escalating police harassment, surveillance, and brutality on the territory. The project violates Wet’suwet’en rights and title, and lacks consent of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary chiefs, who have been resisting the project for a decade.
Royal Bank of Canada is the CAD $6.6 billion project’s financial advisor, with 26 banks providing additional financing. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) recently issued its third rebuke to British Columbia and Canada, calling for a withdrawal of police, and to stop the forced eviction of Wet’suwet’en people.
“RBC has the opportunity to truly live up to its shiny reputation of reconciliation and meaningful climate action,” Beuhler added. “That means stopping the Coastal GasLink pipeline, ending fossil fuel finance, and reinvesting in a climate-safe economy.”
There’s a growing and powerful movement rising in solidarity with Indigenous land defenders. Last month, members of the public submitted a Competition Bureau complaint, demanding an investigation into RBC’s misleading advertising about the company’s commitments to climate action while continuing to finance fossil fuel expansion.
Over 65+ Hollywood celebrities, hundreds international justice organizations, and thousands of communities demanding RBC end fossil fuel finance. Communities are preparing to organize around the full week of the June 6-12 RBC-sponsored PGA Canadian Open.
RBC has the opportunity to truly live up to its shiny reputation of corporate purpose, Indigenous reconciliation and meaningful climate action. That means stopping funding the expansion of fossil fuels, the Coastal GasLink pipeline, and reinvesting in a climate-safe economy and just transition for oil and gas workers and communities.
See original press release on Stand.earth website. Sent from the territories of Indigenous peoples including Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Mississauga, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, so-called Toronto, Ontario, Canada —
