Can we shift dollars before the clock strikes twelve?

3 min read · August 18, 2023
New Power Labs

There are five years, three-hundred-and-thirty-seven days left to make the transition to renewable energy sources to keep within climate warming thresholds of 1.5 degrees celsius (per the global carbon budget).

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2023 report, improving equitable access to finance can catalyse climate adaptation and mitigation. Yet, deployers in Canada do not capture the applicable data on capital flows to help us understand whether we’re meeting equity-based, cross-sectoral and cross-regional climate funding targets. 

So what do we know? Canadian banks have committed to a net-zero economy through climate pledges in line with the Paris climate accords. Good news! However, all five big Canadian banks can still be found on the Top 20 Global Oil and Gas Funders list. Moreover, the Climate Action Tracker records Canada’s climate finance rating as “highly insufficient.” They attribute this to fossil fuel-focused investments and dependence. 

Much like with equity pledges, it’s not enough to fund small-scale climate-specific investments if the operating framework still favours disproportionate investment in high-polluting sectors. Meeting impending targets and avoiding a critical threshold of warming requires our financial institutions to stay accountable to climate commitments and an accounting of our real net effect.

Contributed by: Tracy Dusabimana 

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