Canadian banks face squeeze between climate expectations, market pressures

While banks recognize that Canadians are living through a wildfire season like no other, activists say they aren't delivering where they're most needed: on efforts against the climate change trends making the infernos worse.

In May, Canadian banks offered support to those affected by an early wave of wildfires in Alberta. In June, they extended the offer to those hit in Nova Scotia, and some expanded it further as fires also raged in Quebec and Ontario.

This past week, banks said they would again offer support, through donations and potential payment deferrals, this time to help Canadians reeling from fires in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia.

But while banks recognize that Canadians are living through a wildfire season like no other, activists say they aren't delivering where they're most needed: on efforts against the climate change trends making the infernos worse.

"The Arctic is on fire at the same time as Hawaii, and a hurricane has hit Baja California for the first time in 90 years -- what more will it take to get our banks to take the right actions?" said Stand.earth climate finance director Richard Brooks.

The group has long been pushing for banks to direct money away from oil and gas and towards clean energy, and though the trend has been gaining momentum, it's not with the urgency Brooks and other activists say is needed.

He pointed to a report from BloombergNEF released earlier this year that showed Canadian banks lag in their low-carbon energy supply funding, compared with what the most frequently referenced climate scenarios say is necessary.

The report found that RBC, for example, was directing about 40 cents towards clean energy solutions for every dollar into oil and gas in 2021, half of the global average ratio of 0.8-to-one and well below the four-to-one ratio needed by 2030 to keep warming to 1.5 degrees.