Letter: Questioning a climate change report on banking

RE: Oxfam pegs Canadian bank-financed emissions at 1.9 billion tonnes in 2020

The headline on the Oxfam report is an attention-getter. One point nine billion tonnes of emissions in one year of financing seems to be a lot of emissions – frightening actually. 

But we should bear in mind the report relied on public data that was available with the banks' lending and investment portfolios. Bank reports are generated from within to promote their market shares and they are only released to the public after they have been massaged to safeguard their community profiles.

While the report rightly claims the banks should increase their own emissions disclosures, is it acceptable to think that self-policing on climate emissions will give the public the information it needs?

Regrettably, the report relied on two-year-old data and a two-year time lag is too old in our world of climate change influences.

With the rapid-fire ability of automation to collect and analyze data, we should expect more timely returns on emissions. Moreover, this emission-monitoring function should also include other greenhouse gases like methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride and our planet’s own humidity levels.

Banks are not confined to any one government. They are international corporations that work globally to find weak spots in the international patchwork of government regulations, and they will continue to pursue profit regardless of climate costs until they are forced to stop. 

Canada cannot control this international manoeuvering on its own and better international co-operation among governments is needed to deal with the cavalier pursuit of profits.

We need fossil fuels for the transition to green energy, but we have little or no agreement on how much we need, if we have enough without further exploration and when we won’t need fossil fuels. 

Dealing with this transition while mitigating climate damages like migrating climate refugees, floods and fires, is and will be complicated stuff. Canada has a 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, its own Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act and it files its National Inventory Reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

All of this is a lot of work for a government and we can only hope the political will remains and that we, the people, the taxpayers and the electors will be kept up to date on our government’s progress in a timely and transparent manner.

André Clement
Greater Sudbury