Richard Brooks at the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development

WATCH THE TESTIMONY HERE

Good afternoon. I am honoured to appear before the Committee.  My name is Richard Brooks. I am the Climate Finance Director at Stand earth, a bi-national NGO working on climate protection. Our climate finance program, supported by our 1 million members, works to transform financial institutions from climate laggards into champions advancing the energy transition.

There is no community untouched by the devastating fires, floods, and smoke of climate caused disasters. When one third of Jasper burns, when Toronto –  our financial centre – floods repeatedly, and when the country racks up over $5 billion to date in climate related damages…. that’s a risk to our economy. 

Just today, the World Health Organization endorsed the call from The Lancet – the world’s foremost medical journal – urging financial institutions  to “divest from fossil fuels to save lives”. Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director stated: “We are seeing record-breaking heat waves, droughts and food insecurity affecting millions of lives worldwide. Yet, we continue to pour trillions of dollars into fossil fuels, which are driving these crises. It’s time to stop funding harm and start investing in health.”

Earlier this month, the University of Toronto’s Climate Observatory released a groundbreaking report. They studied the financed emissions of 18 banks, pension funds and asset managers. These 18 financial institutions have financed emissions that are double Canada’s reported emissions and one hundred times the City of Toronto’s.

• Their $1.2 trillion of financing and investments in fossil fuel companies in 2022 account for 1.4 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions. 
• If they were a country, these 18 financial institutions would be the 5th largest emitter in the world.

In June, the CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada appeared before this very Committee. You’ll recall he could not remember what his salary was. He stated that 80% of RBC’s clients have transition plans. He neglected to say that only 2% of the energy clients have 1.5 degree aligned transition plans. Dave McKay couldn’t recall that the bank had disclosed that RBC’s emissions from financing oil and gas companies are equal to the emissions from all cars and light trucks in Canada every year.

CEOs from all the other banks mentioned the need for a slow, orderly transition. But there is nothing orderly about Canadians fleeing fires. There is nothing orderly about towns evacuated and thousands unhoused. 

Yet our banks continue to finance the cause of the problem – fossil fuel emissions – and claim phasing this down would be disorderly. 

A report released just today – Urgewald’s Global Climate Exit List – revealed that over the last year RBC, TD and BMO actually increased coal financing. Canada is a founding member of the Powering Past Coal global alliance, why are our banks enabling coal deals? 

Indigenous nations and disenfranchised communities in Canada disproportionately bear the brunt of climate impacts. They are also on the frontlines of the many financial risky, polluting oil and gas projects that banks are financing and enabling. These include projects like PRGT, Coastal GasLink, Rio Bravo gas pipelines and terminals. 

A couple of weeks ago Exxon issued a new bond. This was long dated to…. 2074. This bond is for general corporate purposes to facilitate the company drilling and digging for another 50 years, long past the date of any net zero plans and commitments in Canada and beyond. 

There were four banks who underwrote this bond. RBC, which has a 2050 net zero commitment, was one of them. 

This is a clear example of a bank CEO misleading you, the public, and investors by professing to “help” its clients transition. That’s a false rationale to enable fossil fuel giants to pollute long past 2050. 

It is not orderly or just. It is just greedy. 

We can not reach our national climate goals, meet international commitments, or protect our communities from the effects of climate change if our financial institutions are misaligned. They are literally slamming on the just transition brakes as we try to push the accelerator for climate-safe economy.

Of the banks you heard from in June: TD is now known as a top money launderer for drug cartels. RBC is under investigation by the Competition Bureau for allegedly misleading consumers about its climate claims and greenwashing.  CIBC and BMO have been fined for improper record keeping. Scotiabank was fined for unlawful commodities trading. 

We can not trust voluntary actions by our banks. To date, they have not proven either trustworthy or accountable. 

Here are the actions Stand.earth proposes you support in your report and recommendations:

• The Commissioner of the Competition Bureau must use the enhanced powers of the Competition Act to investigate all the banks. 
• The Climate Aligned Finance Act (CAFA) bill must be advanced to help get our banks and pensions in alignment. 
• Climate Transition plans that are standardized and credible must be made mandatory for banks. 
• The banks have record profits. Tax them with a climate impact tax and have those funds dedicated to compensation for the climate damages they have caused through their fossil fuel financing. 
• Incentivize further investments by financial institutions in renewables and climate solutions.
• Disincentivize financing of oil and gas companies for general corporate usage for business as usual pollution growth.  

I urge you to issue a formal report and include these recommendations in your findings. Thank you for your time.