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?
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.
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.
Traditional territories of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Mississauga, and Wendake-Nionwentsïo First Nations (so-called Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
In the face of growing opposition to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)’s financing of fossil fuel projects including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline, Canada’s largest bank canceled the in-person portion of their annual shareholder meeting less than 24 hrs before it was scheduled.
Canada’s major banks’ support for the fossil sector grew by 70% last year, despite recognizing the need for emissions to fall, according to the flagship report.
Coastal GasLink (CGL) is a dangerous project that blatantly violates Indigenous rights, and puts our climate goals at risk.
Today, over 65 Hollywood celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and Robert Downey Jr., released a letter to City National Bank’s (CNB) parent company, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), demanding the immediate withdrawal of financial support for Coastal GasLink.
Today RBC released – to little fanfare, and deservedly so – an update on it’s ESG activities.
As world governments and corporations push back against Putin’s aggression by pulling out of Russian business, many financial giants and investors don’t seem to have a problem propping up Putin’s war machine.