On November 27, 2024, Ecojustice submitted a set of recommendations to the House Committee on Environmental and Sustainable Development on how to urgently align Canada’s banks and financial institutions with a climate-safe future.
Ecojustice urged the committee issue a report recommending:
- The reform of Canada’s financial system to align with climate commitments as provided in Bill S-243, the Climate-Aligned Finance Act, which would itself provide a rigorous science-based regulatory framework for annual climate transition planning and reporting and address greenwashing concerns around climate action. (see collective ENGO submission for further details)
- The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) reconsider its interpretation of its mandate, as suggested by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, and to issue detailed guidelines on transition plans.
- Federally regulated public pension managers, in particular the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Public Sector Pension Investment Board, be required to fully disclose their investments in private equity funds. (see submission by Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health for further details)
- A Sustainability Taskforce be established within the Competition Bureau and the rules be strengthened to address greenwashing in the financial sector and to crack down on greenwashing.
Ecojustice’s Sustainable Finance Project Lead, and the legal architect behind CAFA, Karine Peloffy underscored the importance of ensuring Canada’s financial institutions are regulated to work for, not against, climate action: “Canada urgently needs to reform its financial policies to align with meaningful climate action. The recommendations we put forward, which have been substantially reflected, offer the robust, science-based regulatory framework needed to tackle greenwashing and ensure Canada’s financial sector is doing its part in securing a climate-safe future for all — instead of actively working against it.”
In an encouraging move, the House Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development have given Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault a 30-day deadline to report back on their plan to get Canada’s financial system in line with the country’s climate commitments.
Karine shared: “We are encouraged to see our elected Parliamentarians take a proactive approach to the catastrophic environmental impacts of Canada’s unsustainable financial system. Climate-aligned finance is the largest gap in Canada’s climate plan, and we continue to fall further and further behind our global peers. The Committee’s action is especially welcomed given the government’s lackluster announcement on a taxonomy process and eventual CBCA disclosures earlier this year, and as the Climate-Aligned Finance Act has now been stuck in the Senate Banking Committee for a year and a half.”
Now, we await the Ministers’ response.
Additional Resources: For Ecojustice’s Submission to ENVI committee Climate Impacts Canada’s Financial System, Ecojustice Submission to IFRS Climate-related Uncertainties, and our joined ENVI ENGO Submission Environment, Climate and Finance see Related Downloads below.
