Financing

Global Warming:
Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Summary of FindingsFinancing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Financing Global Warming:
Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels
Summary of Findings“Climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.”—Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank.1

T

he investments made today by Canadian banks will
shape Canada’s carbon footprint for decades to come.
The enormous financial commitments made by

Canada’s five biggest banks—RBC, TD Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC
and BMO—to fossil fuel production, namely oil, gas and coal
operations, inextricably links them to the fueling of global
climate change. Banks are the lifeblood of the fossil fuel industry.
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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Report Methodology

While banks often track and report the carbon emissions
associated with running their offices and staff travels,
such “operational emissions” are dwarfed by the volume
of climate-changing emissions that result from the projects they finance, so-called “financed emissions.”

Our research set out to answer the following questions:• How much funding do Canadian banks provide
for the dirty fossil fuel production (i.e., coal, oil,gas, and tar sands) that is driving global warming?

This Summary of Findings,“Financing Global Warming:
Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels,” is based on detailed
research by Profundo Economic Research of Canadianbank fossil fuel financing. It is the first report to analyze and quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of seven
leading Canadian banks—the aforementioned banks aswell as Desjardins and Vancity—based on their financing of fossil fuels. In addition, this Summary makes
recommendations for what banks, bank customers,
regulators and civil society can do to help reduce theclimate impacts of banking.

• What are the total carbon emissions that result
from each bank’s financing of fossil fuelproduction?
• What is the carbon footprint of an individual
checking account held at any of these banks?
• How much funding do Canadian banks provide
for clean, renewable energy alternatives?
We looked at Canada’s five biggest banks4:

For Canada’s largest banks, operational emissions represent less than one percent of their total contributions
to climate change. Though these operational emissions are not trivial—Canadian banks reported morethan 500,000 tonnes of operational CO2 emissions in
the last year2—more than 99 percent of their overall
climate footprint comes from the fossil fuel production they finance. The five biggest banks stand out for
their extensive funding of oil, gas, and coal operations.
In contrast, Desjardins and Vancity, like other credit
unions, tend to focus on local community investingand small business finance.

• RBC• TD Bank• Scotiabank• CIBC• BMO
In addition, we analyzed Canada’s largest cooperative
financial group and credit union, respectively:• Desjardins• British Columbia-based Vancity

Polls increasingly show that Canadians are seriously
concerned about the climate and their personal ability to reduce energy use.3 The carbon footprint of abank has an indirect impact on the carbon footprintof each banking customer. This Summary will showthat customers of Canada’s top five, high-carbon banks
can significantly reduce their own carbon footprints byswitching their savings, checking and/or CD accounts
to a competing, low-carbon bank.

Where the Summary references either “checking” or“savings” accounts, this is meant to include all deposits held by the bank on behalf of a specific person or
institution. Money in deposit accounts can in principle
be used to finance all assets the bank has on its balance
sheet. Therefore, for the savings and checking accountcarbon calculator, bank financing data is limited tobank funding provided through direct loans and direct
investments in bonds and equity to fossil fuel production corporations. Fossil fuel production investmentbanking activities and use of assets under management are not reported in the balance sheet and are
not financed by money deposited on savings accounts.
Therefore, they were excluded from the carbon
accounting for the purposes of this calculator.

Every dollar banks invest in fossil fuels is a dollar better
spent on clean energy and energy efficiency alternatives.
With more than $3.6 trillion in assets, the financing decisions of Canada’s top banks greatly impacts
Canada’s $1.3 trillion economy and the trajectory of
the country’s future greenhouse gas emissions. The
resistance of banks to address the climate impacts of
their financing jeopardizes the climate, the economy,
and public health. Wide scientific consensus over thegravity of the climate crisis and the urgency with which
we must act means business-as-usual is no longer a
viable option.
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The carbon intensity of deposit accounts were calculated based on research by Profundo, a Dutch economic
research consultancy firm, of each banks portfolio of
direct loans to public corporations that are engaged

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuelsin fossil fuel extraction of coal, oil and/or natural gas,
as well as direct investments in either shares or debt
instruments by the banks of their own assets.

What is a carbon
footprint?
A carbon footprint is a widely used measure of
the carbon dioxide emitted by a human activity
over the lifecycle of a product or service.
It is a flexible concept that can be applied
to individuals, businesses, governments or
populations. A small relative footprint indicates alighter impact on the climate.

Identification of the oil, gas, coal and tar sands clientsof the banks was undertaken to the extent possibleusing a variety of public and proprietary data sources.
Detailed documentation of each banks’ identified clients in fossil fuel production can be found in the fullreport at www.climatefriendlybanking.org/bankreport.

In the case of banks, the carbon footprint is thetotal lifecycle carbon emitted from fossil fuels
whose extraction is directly financed by thebank, allocated in proportion to the percentageof overall financing to that company the bankprovided. This measure allows valid comparisonof the “carbon intensity” of different banks
irrespective of their size.

Photo: Chris Evans, The Pembina InstituteThe carbon footprints of checking accounts
held at seven different Canadian banks can becompared at www.climatefriendlybanking.org.

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Photo: Brant Olson, Rainforest Action Network

Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Financed Emissions and The Big
Five Canadian Banks““[The financial services sector’s] greatest opportunity to reduce the advance of
global warming is through its investment and lending portfolios.”—Carbon Disclosure Project, 20085.

C

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anada’s five largest banks provide significant amounts offunding for fossil fuel production.

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

In 2007, RBC, TD, Scotiabank, CIBC and BMO provided:A substantial portion of bank loans, investments andother financing is going to fund the world’s largest
and dirtiest fossil fuel development project: the massive expansion of tar sands oil production in Alberta.
Canada’s five biggest banks have provided direct corporate loans and underwriting to 23 major tar sands companies. With additional tar sands expansion projects
seeking an unprecedented $110 billion in new capitalthrough 2011—more than double the amount of capital invested in tar sands projects during the previous
ten years7—analysts believe that investment in tar sands
infrastructure now surpasses that of manufacturing
across all of Canada.8• More than $55 billion in direct corporate loans
and investments in securities for coal, gas and oil
production;• An additional $100 billion of bank financing
through the provision of investment banking services and the allocation of assets placed under their
management to the fossil fuel sector.
By any measuring stick, this is a significant poolof financing for fossil fuel production. By contrast,
Canada’s 2007–08 defense budget totaled less than $17
billion.

These huge capital flows to transform Alberta into
America’s gas tank are distorting Canada’s economy
and the global climate.

The financed carbon emissions from Canada’s fivelargest banks based on their funding of fossil fuels areequally significant, totaling 625 million tonnes of CO2
per year. To put this in context, Canada’s greenhousegas emissions from ALL energy use across the country—including all power plants, industry and manufacturing, transportation, homes and offices—totaled 583
million tonnes of CO2 in 2006.6

When bank funding goes to dirty energy projects liketar sands expansion or new coal-fired power plants, it
locks in a polluting infrastructure that will cast a longcarbon shadow over the country for decades to come.
If all currently proposed tar sands projects proceed
as planned, tar sands production will more than quadruple in the next 12 years, further increasing carbon
emissions.9

Financing of oil, gas and coal by Canadian Banks
60,000

C$ millions

50,000assets under
mgmnt

40,000investmentbanking

30,000bank direct
investments

20,000loans
10,0000RBC

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TD Bank

Scotiabank

BMO
Financial

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CIBC

Desjardins

Vancitywww.climatefriendlybanking.org

Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

CO2 emissions from financed fossil fuels

million tonnes CO2

250
200

assets undermanagement
investmentbanking

150

bank direct
investments

100

loans

50
0
RBC

TD Bank

Scotiabank

BMO
Financial

CIBC

Desjardins

VancityBank

Tar sands gone wild
• Approved tar sands leases can draw up to
2.3 billion barrels of water per year from the
Athabasca River;

The tar sands, a sticky mixture of bitumen andsand, lie beneath 140,000 km2 of pristine boreal
forest in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, an
area larger than the provinces of New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island combined.
These deposits establish Canada’s proven oil
reserves at 179 billion barrels, second only tothose of Saudi Arabia.

• Tar sands projects are deforesting,fragmenting and degrading intact boreal
forests, with negative impacts on caribou andother sensitive species;• Tar sands extraction is energy-intensive andconsumes natural gas in volumes nearly equal
to that used by all Canadian households;

The Alberta tar sands project is one of the largest
oil development efforts in the world. Extracting
this unconventional oil comes with a hugeenvironmental price tag.

• Tar sands extraction releases three times
as much carbon emissions per barrel as
conventional oil production;• Globally significant wetland ecosystems,
which provide habitat for migrating waterfowl
such as the endangered whooping crane, arethreatened;

Analysts project investments in excess of $100
billion to nearly triple tar sands production from
1.3 million to more than 3 million barrels per day
by 2020. At this pace, greenhouse gas emissions
from tar sands production would double by2012, completely negating Canada’s reduction
targets for greenhouse gas emissions under the
Kyoto Protocol and locking in high emissions for
decades to come.

• Three barrels of water are required to produce
each barrel of tar sands oil;
• 90–95 percent of all water used is ultimately
too toxic to be returned to rivers and must be
stored in huge, long-lived, toxic tailing ponds
as big as 50km2 in size;• Tailings ponds are acutely toxic to aquatic lifeand birds;

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Financed Emissions andDesjardins and Vancity

Desjardins provided $233 million in direct corporateloans and investments to fossil fuel producers, a muchsmaller absolute amount and a much smaller proportion of its total assets than the big five Canadian banks.

In both absolute and size-adjusted terms, both
Desjardins and Vancity provided little to no direct
financing for fossil fuel producers in 2007.

Vancity stands out as the only Canadian bank profiled
in this study that provided no corporate loans or direct
investments to fossil fuel producers.

First Nations on the frontlines.
Members of the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca
Chipewyan First Nations live in the small town ofFort Chipewyan, on the banks of Lake Athabasca
about 200 kilometers downstream from the tar
sands mines. The community’s doctor recently
raised concerns over high incidents of a rare anddeadly bile duct cancer that has developed within
the community. Normally affecting only one in a
population of 100,000, five cases had developed
within the small community of just 1,200. Elevatedrates of thyroid dysfunction and immune systemproblems are also being found.1[2] Beyond healthimpacts, elders in the community also complain that
mercury contamination from the mines have robbed

the community of hunting, trapping and othersubsistence and traditional cultural activities.
Chiefs representing Treaties 6,7 and 8 passed
a unanimous resolution in February 2008 to
support calls for no new oil sands approvals untilFirst Nations approve comprehensive watershedmanagement and resource development plans forthe region.

Photo: Chris Evans, The Pembina Institute“The cumulative impacts of oil sands development
has all but destroyed the traditional livelihood ofFirst Nations in northern Athabasca watershed.”—Chief Alan Adam, Athabasca Chipewyan First
Nationwww.ran.org

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Coal, King of the climate killers“Coal, specifically prompt phase-out of coalemissions, is the one critical element insolution of the global warming problem, inpreservation of a planet resembling the oneon which civilization developed.”1—Dr. James Hanson

with its impending takeover of Fording Canadian
Coal Trust, will be Canada’s largest hard coalproducer.
Canadian bank financing of destructive coal mining
extends overseas as well, including BMO’s direct
financing of widely reviled mountaintop removal
coal mining in Appalachia.3

Each year, Canada mines more than 66 million
tonnes of coal, of which approximately 60
percent is burned in Canada and 40 percent isexported.2 This includes coal from the largest
open-pit steelmaking coal mines in the Northern
Hemisphere, helping make Canada the secondlargest exporter of this hard coal, trailing only
Australia.

Coal finance, dollar for dollar, has adisproportionately huge impact on the carbon
footprint of banks. Because of the cost structureof coal mining companies, the carbon intensity ofeach dollar of Canadian bank financing for coalis 21 times higher than that of oil and gas. This isbecause mining companies generally invest only inmining production, whereas oil and gas companies
also invest in tankers, pipelines and refineries,
thus diluting the carbon intensity as investments
are spread across production, transport anddistribution.

The coal mined in just three days in Canada isenough to fill up the Toronto Skydome.
When burned, the coal mined each year in Canada
releases 183 million tonnes of CO2, constituting
the equivalent of nearly a third of Canada’s total
fossil fuel emissions.

Every million dollars the top five banks use todirectly finance coal mining results in 40,200
tonnes of CO2 emissions on average from theextraction and subsequent burning of the coal. The
simplest thing banks can do to immediately reduce
their carbon footprint is to eliminate coal financing.

Canada’s top five banks finance large, dedicatedcoal mining corporations responsible for most of
the 66 million tonnes of coal mined in Canada,
including Sherritt International, Canada’s main
thermal coal producer, and Teck Cominco, which,

3. To learn more about mountain top removal coal mining
in Appalachia, see: http://ilovemountains.org/ Our research
uncovered BMO financing to Arch Coal and to Alpha Natural
Resources, both large coal companies with significant MTR
operations

Photo: Chris Evans, The Pembina Institute

1. Dr. James Hanson, NASA Goddard Institute for SpaceStudies, September 10, 2008. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/
mailings/20080910_Kingsnorth.pdf
2. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/ms/cmy/content/2006/22.pdf

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Quick bank facts
Royal Bank of Canada
Bank rank in Canada:#1 (by assets)

Direct fossil fuels funding:$15.9 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$1.7 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$50.5 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

198 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:34%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

1,120 kg CO2

Scotiabank
Bank rank in Canada:#3 (by assets)

Direct fossil fuels funding:$12 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$1.5 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$19.8 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

87 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:15%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

1,430 kg CO2

TD Bank
Bank rank in Canada:#2 (by assets)

Direct fossil fuels funding:$7.9 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$0.8 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$27.7 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

124 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:21%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

970 kg CO2

CIBC

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Bank rank:#5 (by assets)

Direct fossil fuels funding:$9.2 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$2.1 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$27.4 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

101 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:17%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

1,160 kg CO2

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Quick bank facts, continued

BMO
Bank rank in Canada:#4 (by assets)

Direct fossil fuels funding:$10.2 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$0.7 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$30.3 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

97 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:17%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

1,070 kg CO2

Desjardins
Bank rank:#1 cooperative
financial group

Direct fossil fuels funding:$0.23 billion

Direct renewable energy funding:$0.01 billion

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$5.1 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

15 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:3%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

40 kg CO2

Vancity/Citizens Bank of Canada

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Bank rank:#1 credit union

Direct fossil fuels funding:$0

Direct renewable energy funding:$0

Total bank fossil fuel financing:$0.2 billion

CO2 emissions from total financed fossil fuels:

0.5 million tonnes

Total financed CO2 as % of Canada’s total energy emissions:less than 0.1%

Checking/savings account carbon footprint per $10,000:

less than 1 kg CO2

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Photo: Chris Evans, The Pembina Institute

Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Financed Emissions andIndividual Bank Customers:
Calculating the Carbon Footprint of a Bank AccountAn individual’s choice of bank can have a large impact
on her personal carbon footprint. Banks leverage
every dollar deposited into $10–15 dollars of newlending. Deposit accounts held in any of the top five highcarbon banks have carbon footprints ranging from 970 to
1,430 kg larger per $10,000 than a deposit account held in
Vancity, the lowest-carbon bank, and 25 to 38 times larger
than Desjardins, the second-lowest-carbon bank.

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Carbon footprint of checking and savings accounts

Kg CO2/year per C$10,000

1,600
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200

RBC

TD Bank

ScotiabankMoving $10,000 from Scotiabank, the highest-carbon
footprint bank, to Vancity, the low- carbon bank leader, avoids an amount of financed CO2 (1,430 kg CO2)
comparable to10:• not driving a small car for five months;• replacing an average car with one that gets 33 percent better gas mileage;

BMO
Financial

CIBC

Desjardins

Vancity

Financing For Clean Energy Lags
Tackling climate change requires ending our addiction to fossil fuels by shifting capital to new, renewableenergy infrastructure and energy efficiency measures,
which can meet energy needs and create jobs while decarbonizing the economy.

• eliminating seven two-hour airplane flights per
year.

A study by the David Suzuki Foundation11 foundthat investments in renewable energy—wind, solar,
low impact hydro, biomass and geothermal—could in
Ontario alone:

The five high-carbon banks are (in order of CO2 intensity): Scotiabank, CIBC, RBC, BMO and TD Bank.

• Create 25,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector
by 2010 and 77,000 jobs by 2020.

Based on the results of this report’s findings, Rainforest
Action Network has created a free Canadian bank carbon calculator to calculate the carbon footprint of apersonal checking and savings account. The calculator
is available at www.climatefriendlybanking.org.

• Install more than 12,000 megawatts of renewableenergy capacity by 2020—enough electricity tophase out Ontario’s coal plants.
• Produce nearly $14 billion in economic benefits byinstalling 8,000 megawatts of wind energy alone.

Using this online tool, customers of any of the seven
Canadian banks that we evaluated can calculate the carbon emissions associated with their savings and checking account deposits and, if they are in a high-carbon
footprint bank, consider the CO2 savings from switching their accounts to a low-carbon leader.

www.ran.org• Use renewable energy to replace natural gas andelectricity currently used for heating and coolinghomes, offices and industries in Ontario.
• Create a culture of conservation to help reducedemand for electricity in the first place, and saveconsumers money.

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

All of the banks we studied, with the exception of
Vancity, have lagged behind in investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy; fossil fuels still grab a farlarger amount of bank financing than investments inclean renewables. In 2007, Canadian banks (excluding
Vancity) raised nearly 14 times more financing for fossil fuels than for renewable energy.

Financing of oil, gas & coal vs. renewables$40,000$35,000

C$millions$30,000
oil, gas& coal$25,000

renewables$20,000$15,000$10,000$5,000$RBC

TD Bank

Scotiabank

BMO
Financial

CIBC

Desjardins

Vancity

Boreal Forest and the Vicious Cycle ofClimate Change
Adapted from http://www.borealbirds.org/industry.shtml
The deforestation of Canada’s boreal forest
due to tar sands oil production, mining, andindustrial forestry imperils the massive tonnageof carbon stored in the vegetation and soils. The
release of this carbon into the atmosphere as a
product of human development could have direconsequences—accelerating climate change, which
in turn accelerates the degradation of the Boreal.
Substantial areas of surface are impacted byseismic lines required for exploration, accessroads, pipelines, well sites, and power corridors.
The clearing associated with oil productionand exploration also releases carbon into theatmosphere.
Human disturbance in the Boreal is triggering a
vicious cycle of warming. For example, as global

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temperatures rise, peatlands and forest stands
are projected to dry, which releases carbon andmakes them more vulnerable to wildfires, wherein
additional carbon would be released into theatmosphere. , Healthy forests that retain theirnatural complexity and diversity (e.g., in age
and habitat structure) generally have greater
stability and resilience to withstand disturbances
associated with climate change.
Large scale forest protection is thus a key
component to slowing and reversing the effects ofclimate change, regionally and globally.

1. Schindler, D.W. A dim future for boreal waters andlandscapes. Bioscience, 48 (3): 157–165. (1998)

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Conclusion“What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”—Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change.
Canada’s top banks provided more than $155 billion
in total corporate financing for fossil fuel extraction in
Canada and internationally in 2007. The 625 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the extraction and burning of these fossil fuels results in a carbon
footprint for RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC
that isgreater than Canada’s total energy use emissions.
By contrast, Desjardins and VanCity, two significant
banks based on the credit union model, have very low
carbon footprints.
By investing in carbon-intensive, long-lived infrastructure such as the tar sands, bank financing is locking
Canada into higher carbon emission trajectories for
decades to come. At the same time, scientists are clearly
and urgently warning us that if we are to prevent catastrophic climate change, we must shift investments
to clean energy and energy efficiency pathways, decarbonize the economy, and quickly phase out fossil
fuels. This new trajectory would create hundreds ofthousands of green jobs, improve energy security, andsave consumers money.

Deposit accounts including checking, savings and CD’s
are an important source of capital for banks. For every
dollar deposited, banks are able to leverage $10–15 in
new loans. Customers can significantly reduce theirown carbon footprint by switching their savings, checking and/or CD accounts from a high-carbon bank toa low-carbon bank. For example, $10,000 in deposit
accounts switched from Scotiabank to the low-carbon
leader bank, VanCity, would reduce an individual’s
carbon footprint by1.4 tonnes of CO2 per year, theequivalent of taking a car off the road for five months.
Not unlike the 2007–08 global financial crisis spawnedby the banking sector, major banks are financing a
growth in greenhouse gas emissions that could lead to acatastrophic climate crisis that will negatively impact us
all. Action must be taken quickly to ensure that banks
are held accountable for the climate impacts of theirfinancing, and to redirect their financial resources tobuild out a low-carbon, climate-friendly future.
For more information or to see the full report, please
visit www.climatefriendlybanking.org

Canada and climate change
Growth in greenhouse emissions from the expansion
of Canada’s tar sands sector is derailing Canadiancapacity to meet its international climate obligations.
So, while Canada has committed to reduce its
greenhouse gas emissions six percent below 1990
levels by 2012, investments in tar sands expansion
are quickly moving Canada in the opposite direction.
Canada’s emissions from all sources are currently
nearly 30 percent above this target.
Extraction of tar sands emits 3–5 times more
greenhouse gases than conventional oil, andoverall emissions from the sector are expected totriple from 2006 to 2020 to more than 100 million
tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year as the sector
expands. By comparison, total emissions from allenergy use in Canada in 2006 was 583 million
tonnes of CO2, of which the entire Canadian fleet

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of gasoline-powered cars, trucks and motorcycles
emitted 90 million tonnes.1
Canada’s forests and the communities that dependon them are particularly vulnerable to the impactsof climate change. Canada’s vast forests, which
serve as massive carbon “sinks,” are becoming
increasingly unstable due to the warming climate
and industrial impacts. As a result, forests areburning more often and releasing more carbon
back into the atmosphere. These trends are
expected to dramatically worsen unless Canada
and other developed countries move quickly to halt
greenhouse emissions growth and start reducing
total emissions with a reduction target of at least
80–90 percent by 2050.
1. http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/inventory_report/2006/somsum_eng.pdf

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Recommendations• Adopt a comprehensive climate policy to reduce
financed emissions and address climate change
covering all business lines;• Set meaningful carbon reduction targets forenergy sector and other top greenhouse gasintensive sector lending and investment portfolios;• Stop funding the further expansion of tar sandsand coal infrastructure;• Lend public support to calls from a broad rangeof stakeholders for a provincial government
moratorium on new tar sands licenses, tenuresand expansion;• Ensure that all financing addresses and respects
Aboriginal title and treaty rights, including free,prior and informed consent;• Prioritize lending for energy efficiency andclean, renewable energy;• Report annually on the carbon footprint ofbank financing.

To bank customers:• Calculate the carbon footprint of your deposit
account(s) at www.climatefriendlybanking.org;• Talk to your branch manager and/or write aletter to your bank asking what they are doing
to implement the above recommendations tobanks;• Switch your savings and/or checking accounts
from a high-carbon bank to a low-carbon,
climate-friendly bank;• Cut up your high-carbon
bank cards and mail themto your bank, explaining
your climate concerns;• If you are a consumer ofbank-managed mutual
funds, ask your bank toprovide you with carbon
footprint assessments of
their various funds. Ask
your financial advisor forhelp in identifying mutual
funds that have relatively
low carbon footprints and/or mutual funds that specialize in clean technology
holdings;

Photo: Corbis Images

To banks:

cut your carbon debt

• Make use of bank climate products such as green
mortgages and energy efficiency loans.

To governments:• Establish a binding and uniform legal framework
for banks to report on the CO2 emissions that
result from their loans and investments;• Establish a reporting point for socially unacceptable transactions where NGOs and affected stakeholders could file complaints on what they see asunacceptable transactions for Canadian registeredbanks.

To civil society:• Start talking to your organization’s bank about
integrating climate concerns into its banking andinvestment practices.

• Encourage others to switch to a climate-friendlybank;www.ran.org

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Endnotes
1 http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/stern.htm
2 Operational emissions were compiled from each bank’s 2007
annual CSR reports and/or submission to the Carbon Disclosure
Project, www.cdproject.net, or website (in the case of TD www.
td.com/corporateresponsibility/pdf/TD_GHG_Feb5_08.pdf) andtotaled 593,215 tonnes CO2 for all seven banks.
3 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/09/23/environ-ment-poll.html Accessed on October 31, 2008.
4 http://list.canadianbusiness.com/rankings/investor500/2008/q1/
Default.aspx?sp2=1&d1=d&sc1=4 Accessed on August 25,

2008. These banks are among Canada’s most profitable corporations ranked by total profits. . RBC is ranked
as the most profitable corporation in Canada. TD Bank,
Scotiabank and CIBC are ranked 5th, 6th and 7th respectively, and BMO is ranked 15th.

6 http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/inventory_report/2006/tab_eng.
cfm
7 http://www.albertacanada.com/documents/AIS-EC_oilSandsUpdate_1207.pdf
8 http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/22/tech-canadagreenhouse.html Stat Canada report on file. www.statcan.ca
Human Activity and the Environment: Annual Statistics. 20072008. Statistics Canada, Environment Accounts and Statistics
Division, System of National Accounts.
9 http://www.strategywest.com/downloads/StratWest_Outlook.
pdf
10 Calculations based on information provided at: http://www.
onelesstonne.ca/sourcescalcs.pdf
11 http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/Climate/Ontario/Smart_
Generation_full_report.pdf

Photo: MorgueFile

5 http://www.cdproject.net/download.asp?file=CDP6_
Global_500_Report.pdf

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Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels

Acknowledgments
The Financing Global Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels report was written
by Bill Barclay, Rainforest Action Network’s Global Finance Campaigner. Research
was provided by Jan Willem van Gelder, Christophe Scheire, Hassel Kroes and Sarah
Denie, Profundo Economic Research.
Many thanks for the contributions from Gillian McEachern of Forest Ethics; Nicole
Rycroft of Market Initiatives; and Lafcadio Cortesi, Nell Greenberg, Brant Olson,
and Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network.
Appreciation for review and comments on the research data from staff at the
Canadian Boreal Initiative, Vancity, Desjardins, RBC, TD Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC,
and BMO.
© November 2008

About Us:
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is made up of 43 staff members in San Francisco,
CA and in Tokyo, Japan, plus thousands of volunteer scientists, teachers, parents,
students and other concerned citizens around the world.
Dubbed “some of the most savvy environmental agitators in the business” by theWall Street Journal, RAN uses hard-hitting markets campaigns to align the policies
of multinational corporations with widespread public support for environmental
protection. Our corporate campaigns seek to push companies to balance profits withprinciples, to show that it is possible to do well by doing good.

Contact Information:
Rainforest Action Network:
221 Pine Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104 USA
415-398-4404 phone
415 398-2732 fax
http://www.ran.org/

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