Category: General

Many global observers scratch their heads at why Canada’s big banks continue to double or triple down on an industry most are distancing themselves from, for climate if not for purely economic reasons. The National Observer offers a critical answer via a significant investigation into the ties between banks and the fossil fuel sector.

They found that nearly 1 out of every 5 directors at Canada’s banks have connections to fossil fuel companies. This means that the very top strategic leadership of banks “must act in the best interests of both a bank and a fossil fuel company at precisely the same time the world must transition away from fossil fuels to protect the planet.”

Here’s an excerpt:

Will Canada’s banks get their act together on climate — and who are the money men and women tasked with making it happen?

The answer reveals deep connections between Canada’s largest banks and the fossil fuel industry that pose significant barriers to climate action. To understand how a bank’s board of directors is influenced, Canada’s National Observer combed through the directors of Canada’s five largest banks — RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC — and found one in five also serves on the board of a fossil fuel company, the industry most responsible for driving climate change. Thirteen of 63 bank directors have direct fossil fuel connections, the findings reveal, with at least one fossil-linked director serving on each of the Big 5 banks’ boards.

Read the full investigation at the National Observer website here.

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  —

When most people first learn that their financial institutions are contributing in major ways to making the climate crisis worse, one of the first questions they typically ask is, so where should I bank then?

While the issue is complicated, Matt Price of Investors for Paris Compliance recently wrote this helpful steer.

Canada’s banks are particularly carbon entangled, with our big five each featuring in the top 20 largest funders of fossil fuels in the world. While we need to keep lobbying governments to better regulate both the fossil fuel sector and the financial sector, climate-concerned Canadians can also take action by letting their bank know they are unhappy with its performance and either threatening to shift their business elsewhere or actually doing it.

But shift where? We get this question a lot because we carefully parse the climate disclosures of Canada’s banks to compare them with best practices given by science. They are each now talking a good game about getting to “net zero” by 2050, but the reality is unfortunately less than advertised. In this piece, we hope to provide a general ranking of where the banks are in their policy journey so that you can make your own decisions on how or whether to engage with them.

The best financial institutions tend to be credit unions, of which Canada has plenty of good ones that offer most banking services. You can find one near you using this tool. Regional bank Laurentian ranks second. After that, each choice is filled with challenges as the better banks have made some tangible commitments on fossil fuels, but continue to pour hundreds of millions into their expansion every year.

Dead last in the rankings? RBC:

As Spiderman fans know, with great power comes great responsibility. RBC is Canada’s largest bank and, as such, sets the tone. Unfortunately, RBC is Canada’s largest funder of fossil fuels, fifth largest in the world. Moreover, the tone we are hearing from RBC is decidedly pro-fossil fuels.

Incredibly, RBC is doing less than even the banks in the prior category. Unlike the other banks, it is yet to set any targets for its financed emissions and underestimates its current emissions by failing to account for what’s called “Scope 3” or downstream emissions.

Recently, RBC put out a report that called for increasing oil and gas production in Canada. Note that the International Energy Agency found getting to net zero means no investment in new fossil fuels — we already have enough to cook the planet. Only dodgy math could argue the opposite.

For these reasons, RBC is bringing up the rear.

Which is why RBC staff and customers are going to continue to see images like these, wherever they go. And hopefully more customers walking out their door.

Read the full article at the National Observer.

More and more attention has been paid recently towards the massive impact of banks and other big investors on climate change due to their continuing funding of fossil fuel expansion.

This article from VICE news last year sums up the problem nicely: The world’s biggest banks are still investing billions in fossil fuels, despite years of pledges on climate change. An excerpt:

It has been almost three years since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued a stark warning: By 2030, the world must cut its carbon emissions by almost half of 2017 levels to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. Beyond this point, the risk of droughts, floods, famines and other ecological disasters becomes significantly higher. To adhere to the 1.5 degree target, the IPCC said the global economy must reach the point of carbon neutrality by 2050 – a date that has since become a de facto finish line for countries and corporations.

These days, almost everyone has a net zero by 2050 target, even airlines and oil majors. However, very few governments or companies have detailed exactly how they’ll get nearly halfway to carbon neutral in the coming decade. If the transition away from fossil fuels was truly underway, you’d expect to see financiers retreating from oil and gas and shifting ever-greater sums of capital towards renewable energy. That just isn’t the case for now.

According to Banking on Climate Chaos 2021, a report authored by the Rainforest Action Network and five other NGOs, fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest commercial and investment banks was higher in 2020 than it was in 2016.

The numbers got even worse in 2022, especially for Canada’s banks who doubled down on fossil fuels and the tar sands in particular more than almost any other country on Earth.

Now about those Canadian banks, the National Observer recently wrote a great piece explaining the issue in Canada:

Despite making promises to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, Canada’s biggest banks play an outsized role in propping up the global fossil fuel economy: RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC all find themselves among the world’s top 20 financiers of fossil fuels.

These five banks alone have pumped approximately $911 billion into coal, oil and gas companies since the Paris Agreement was signed in late 2015, and they are on track to cross the $1-trillion threshold later this year. That money is used to expand fossil fuel production, build new pipelines, construct liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and more, frequently at the expense of Indigenous rights.

Now, with a global energy transition underway, Canada’s bankers find themselves neck-deep in oil money with a choice to make: Turn their backs on fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change — or continue financing the very activity threatening all life on Earth.

Most banks don’t appear to want to make this choice. Instead, they’re trying to thread the needle by delaying climate action so there’s more time to squeeze revenue out of existing investments that can’t transition to a world without fossil fuels. Unfortunately for them, and us, time is running out to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 — the only way scientists say the planet can buy time to prevent catastrophic warming.

Be sure to read the full articles at Vice, or the National Observer.

That’s why after months of trying to hold RBC accountable for its misleading advertisements, yesterday 6 customers filed a formal complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada, which regulates Canadian ads. Extraordinary efforts by Ecojustice backed by Stand.earth make this complaint happen.

Here is a tweet thread breaking down the greenwashing at the heart of the matter — which has potentially major implications for the financial products ad industry: https://twitter.com/standearth/status/1517204274983415808. Click on the link to share.

There has already been some great media coverage of this complaint:

• Great article in the Toronto Star
• In the Vancouver Sun
• nd also North Shore News

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer of UBCIC and one of the 6 complainants said, “RBC is deceiving the public by claiming to be taking climate action while expanding its financing of climate-destroying fossil fuels. Climate change disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples around the world as well as here in Canada. Until RBC stops financing fossil fuels, advertising itself as Paris Agreement-aligned is greenwashing — and it shouldn’t be tolerated. The UBCIC Chiefs Council has called on RBC to take immediate and substantive action to phase out fossil fuel financing and we will continue to hold RBC to account.”

2 weeks ago, RBC had a perfect chance to announce it was aligning its policies with its stated commitments to climate action at its Annual General Meeting. Instead, RBC CEO Dave McKay doubled down on fossil fuel finance and blew off the Wet’suwt’en Hereditary Chiefs directly asking him to stop financing the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline currently bulldozing through their territory without consent. 

RBC’s annual shareholder did not go as the giant company had planned. Despite attempting to shut naysayers out by cancelling the in-person meeting down – after 5 PM the night before the meeting – Indigenous leaders and other climate oriented activists and shareholders were still heard.

The cancellation only inflamed activists, who marched through the financial district of downtown Toronto, moving a planned action to the base of RBC’s headquarters. Rallies were also held the same day at over 40 RBC branches across the country. There was even an action at RBC’s new US headquarters in Minneapolis!

Here is a powerful wrap up video from the day:

Major media stories covered the controversy over RBC’s funding of fossil fuels and projects that violate Indigenous rights in major stories in:

• The Globe and Mail covered the “Barrage of criticism”
• The CBC story included an interview with Mark Ruffalo
• The Reuters wire was in many papers including the National Post said the CEO was “slammed”
• CP Wire covered the story which appeared in Toronto Star, Yahoo Finance, and many other papers
• Local media covered one of 40 actions at RBC branches across the country, including in the Ottawa Citizen, and in Nanaimo, Markham, and Oliver.
• And the National Observer did a fantastic in-depth piece, including powerful photos of the Wet’suwet’en chiefs, of how the day unfolded

The story was also covered globally in all leaning global financial media. Stories in Bloomberg, Fortune, and the Financial Times all covered how Canada’s banks are increasingly off-side with the rest of the world, who are moving away from fossil fuels, while banks like RBC double down on climate doom.

Here is a tweet thread from Bank our our Future which also covers the day. A victory for everyone who wants a climate safe future!

RBC held their 2022 annual general meeting last week. Check out our summary of exactly what went down, and what Indigenous leadership had to say about the outcomes 😡🧵…#BankingOnABetterFuture #RBCIsKillingMe #NoMoreDirtyBanks pic.twitter.com/UTmImf7obM

— Banking on a Better Future (@bank4future) April 14, 2022