Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
As a former central banker on two continents, Canada’s Mark Carney has honed the dark art of haranguing and arm-twisting members of the global investment community better than almost anyone.
But his latest task, as the United Nations’ special envoy on climate action and finance, involved some pretty daunting numbers.
Carney, who headed up the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England between 2008 and 2020, was tasked to find more than $100 trillion US in capital from the global financial community to help drive the transformation of the world’s economy from fossil fuels to a new age powered by clean energy.
“It’s a mammoth transition,” Carney told CBC News at COP26, the UN’s climate change conference, in Glasgow, Scotland.
“It’s absolutely enormous. It’s bigger than global GDP.”
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On Wednesday, designated finance day at the Glasgow conference, Carney announced success, of sorts.
“We have banks, asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies from around the world — more than 45 countries — and their total resources, totalling $130 trillion US,” said Carney, $30 trillion more than the target.
“So one of the key messages of this COP is: the money is there.”
The Conference of Parties (COP), as it’s known, meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up in the 1990s to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.
Agreement leaves out big emitters
Carney says more than 450 firms — including Canada’s big five chartered banks — have committed to supporting the goals of what’s become known as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).
Net zero means countries are no longer adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Some greenhouse gases might still be emitted, but they would be balanced off or “cancelled out” by the removal of an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases. The concept is similar to carbon neutrality but includes more than just carbon dioxide emissions.
Firms that sign onto the GFANZ agreement are promising to abide by 24 financial initiatives that will signal to their customers, shareholders and investors that they are making green investments a priority.
The initiatives include climate-related reporting of their investments and transparency about climate-related financial risks.
A flare stack lights the sky in Edmonton in December 2018. The Conference of Parties (COP) meets yearly to implement the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
While the agreement doesn’t compel the financial institutions to invest any specific amount of money or put it into any specific industry, Carney says it creates a new framework for them to make green investments.
“It’s about what their clients are doing, what are the emissions of their clients, the people they lend to, the people they invest in,” he said.
However, there are notable gaps.
Big banks from some of the countries with the largest emissions — China, India and Russia — are not part of the agreement.
Nor does it compel signatories to cease funding projects such as coal mines or other ventures that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
But Carney says if such investments happen they will draw both shareholder and public scrutiny.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicates 1.5 degrees with his hands at the COP26 summit, on Tuesday. Keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels by mid-century is seen as a crucial test for the global community. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/The Associated Press)
“What’s going to happen for RBC, JP Morgan … and investors around the world is they’re going to publish every year — ‘These are the emissions of my clients, and this is my plan to get them down.’ And then people are going to be able to see whether or not they’re going to come down.”
$100B fund still $20B short
COP26, hosted by the U.K. government, is expected to have difficulty reaching several of its stated objectives, including getting richer nations to fill up the coffers of a separate $100 billion fund that developing nations can tap into to help transition their economies.
At last count Tuesday, the fund was still roughly $20 billion short.
So Carney’s announcement that the financial sector will meet its target — while national governments so far have not — will be welcome news for the government of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In Glasgow, anticipating Carney’s announcement today, climate campaigners expressed caution about the will of the banking sector to be a force for good in climate mitigation and adaptation.
“We all need the financial system to shift — but if we start celebrating, that is going to give us the impression that we’re already there and we’re not,” said Eddie Perez of Climate Action Network Canada.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, seen here in Gatineau, Que., in October 2019, warns financial institutions could use the Carney initiative to ‘green wash’ their fossil fuel investments. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
For example, he says Royal Bank claims it is a climate champion but continues to invest heavily in Canada’s oil sector.
“I think everything that gets us closer to 1.5 degrees is something that we should look up to, but we need to be much more. We have to scrutinize the strategy to see what comes out of it,” Perez said.
The goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels by mid-century is seen as a crucial test for the global community.
NDP cautions against empty promises
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who’s also at COP26 this week, says there’s a risk that banks and other financial institutions will use the Carney initiative to essentially “green wash” their fossil fuel investments to make them appear more politically acceptable.
“It is actually a net impact that benefits the fight against a climate crisis? Or is this just a symbolic gesture that doesn’t actually make any concrete difference in the fight?” Singh asked.
Former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna praised Carney’s work, but she too stressed the need for the financial sector to increase transparency.
“People need to know, where are they investing? Are they continuing to invest in coal?” McKenna told CBC News.
WATCH | PM Justin Trudeau pitches global carbon tax at COP26:
Trudeau pitches global carbon prices at COP26
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used his platform at COP26 to pitch a global carbon pricing program. Though several European countries are on board, it’s a tough sell without the support of big emitters like the U.S. or China. 2:00
As evidence that the agreement is already making a difference, a statement released Wednesday morning claims that 90 institutions that first signed on to GFANZ have already committed to reducing their portfolio emissions by 25-30 per cent within four years.
It also says 38 central banks in countries comprising 67 per cent of the world’s emissions have started to transform their risk-management system to better account for climate-related risk.
Carney says the agreement is the beginning of what he expects will be a long process to win over public trust that the financial sector can help bring about positive climate change.
“The only way you convince people, and the only way people should be convinced, is through a track record of emissions reduction. So it starts from here.”
Have questions about this story? We’re answering as many as we can in the comments.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
