Statement from Adam Scott, Director of Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health, on BMO’s Unambitious “Climate Ambition” announcement
originally posted March 10, 2021 at https://www.shiftaction.ca/news-updates
For Immediate Release: March 10, 2021
Statement from Adam Scott, Director of Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health, on BMO’s Unambitious “Climate Ambition” announcement
Toronto, ON - Another day, another climate commitment from a Canadian bank that ignores its own role in financing the primary cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels.
BMO’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 is another welcome acknowledgement that finance institutions have an obligation to address the climate crisis through their lending and investment decisions. Yet Canada’s banks have so far failed to acknowledge the requirement to immediately and dramatically shift financing away from fossil fuels and into climate solutions.
Research from BankTrack shows that between 2016 and 2019, BMO provided over USD$82 billion in financing to oil, gas and coal companies and projects, making it the 16th largest financier of fossil fuels among private banks in the world. Similarly, an analysis published last month by German finance NGO Urgewald showed that BMO provided nearly USD$3 billion in loans nearly and USD$2.3 billion in underwriting for global coal companies between October 2018 and October 2020.
A bank that finances the expansion of coal in 2021 demonstrates a fundamental lack of climate literacy. BMO’s claims of “climate ambition” cannot be taken seriously without immediate action to shift away from financing all forms of fossil fuels.
BMO is also a lead financier of two controversial Canadian fossil fuel pipeline projects that violate Indigenous rights and that are incompatible with a climate safe future-- Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline and TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline. BMO is the lead bank on two loans to Enbridge totalling USD$4.05 billion, participated in two other loans to Enbridge, and was the lead underwriter of a bond issuance for Enbridge to build Line 3. It was also the lead agent on a CAD$3 billion loan in September 2019 to TC Energy, which is trying to build the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline to the B.C. coast.
A bank that is claiming climate leadership while financing fossil fuel pipelines is either greenwashing, or doesn’t understand the urgent action the climate crisis necessitates.
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Background information:
“Banking on Climate Change: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2020.” Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, Oil Change International and Reclaim Finance. https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechange2020/
“Financial Backers of Global Coal.” Urgewald. https://coalexit.org/finance-data
“Who’s banking the Coastal GasLink pipeline?” Rainforest Action Network. https://www.ran.org/the-understory/2020-update-whos-banking-the-coastal-gaslink-pipeline/
“Who’s banking Line 3 and Keystone XL?” Rainforest Action Network. https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/RAN-Briefing_Line3_KXL.pdf
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For more information or interview requests, please contact:
Patrick DeRochie, Manager, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health
patrick@shiftaction.ca; 416-576-2701
Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health is an initiative that monitors the fossil fuel investments of Canadian financial institutions and works to protect pensions and the climate by bringing together beneficiaries and their pension funds to engage on the climate crisis.
originally posted March 10, 2021 at https://www.shiftaction.ca/news-updates