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Fast Facts

• Environmental sustainability is a key part of banks’ social responsibility efforts.
• Banks have established environmental policies, goals and practices that help guide their activities inside and out.
• Visit cba.ca/banks-and-the-environment to learn more.

The bottom line

Canada’s banks recognize the urgency of addressing climate change and understand that the financial sector is central to securing the transition to a low-carbon economy, mitigating the impacts of humans on the environment and ensuring the continued resilience of our country’s financial system.

Banks also understand that firm commitments are required to accelerate clean economic growth in Canada and to meet the ambitious goal of a net-zero economy by 2050 set by the Paris Agreement on climate change.

To that end, banks in Canada have pledged to implement climate action plans that set specific targets to meet the demands of this global challenge:

• Financial commitments in the hundreds of billions in support of environmental and sustainable finance activities
• Enhanced focus on financing and investing in lower-carbon businesses, and working with existing business customers in higher-carbon sectors to finance their transition efforts
• Several banks are working on implementing the climate-related disclosures developed by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
• Bank-led programs and strategies to limit the carbon footprint of their own operations through concrete actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Issuance of green bonds to help finance new and existing green projects, assets and businesses that mitigate the risks and effects of climate change
• New metrics are being developed to link environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to bank group performance and executive pay
• Six of Canada’s largest banks have the (NZBA), a global initiative of banks worldwide committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.
• Several banks have also joined RMI’s Centre for Climate-Aligned Finance and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, a global partnership of financial institutions
• Financial support to the to help give momentum to their activities

Visit banks' environment websites for more information:

Bank announcements

January 24, 2024

March 12, 2024

March 7, 2024

November 8, 2022

March 6, 2024

March 14, 2024

March 14, 2024