Promises Made – Very Few Kept: The Main Takeaway? You Can’t Trust Bankers.
When ex-banker Mark Carney started disabling and dismantling ten years’ worth of hard-won climate and environment policy in Canada, it was predictable that big oil / big minerals folks and their political representatives would rapidly move to take advantage. Looking at you, COSIA, Cenovus, Enbridge, Suncor, Danielle Smith and Doug Ford.
And lord knows, they have, with apparently a next-to-blank cheque from the Liberal Caucus via bills C59 and C39. And with happy smirks, and the arrogance that comes with knowing the PM, the Minister of Natural Resources, and the Minister of Finance are all in their corner – and the present Minister of the Environment is apparently happy to go along, even if the last one was not.
What was not initially on our bingo cards was that Canada’s biggest bank, and biggest public company would do the same. Blatantly. And without apology.
In the first 20 months of “the Carnage,” that followed the election of our latest prime minister, Canada’s biggest company, as ranked by both market cap and revenue, The Royal Bank of Canada, has followed suit.
In fairness – some corporate pullback started before Mark Carney, when it was clear that the Justin Trudeau era of “at least some climate action,”along with the carbon tax was going to be replaced by a new government. But it’s accelerated since, in a way no one saw coming under the former special envoy for climate to the United Nations whose unexpected about-face recently set him as second only to Bill Gates – and ahead of Donald Trump – on Newsweek’s list of the top 100 climate action criminals (my word – not theirs).
And first, and presently alone amongst the big six banks, RBC began following the example of their big-oil customers like Suncor and Imperial Oil, by removing or retracting their climate statements on-line, while claiming, without any evidence, that Canada’s greenwashing rules were somehow so onerous they felt there was risk in allowing some of the statements they had made to remain visible. To which the obvious question is “are you lying now? Or were you lying then”?
In the last 20 months, many of RBC’s sustainability reports, touting previously much-heralded environmental and climate commitments, have been quietly walked back or erased from their website, along with the commitments being walked back or pushed back – many of which they had already failed to keep by the date they promised to do so.
And then the Liberal’s latest budget shifted the demand for climate and ESG disclosures by public companies from something Ottawa was expected to formally mandate, to now become “voluntary.” Not a big change in a massive budget document. One word. But essentially now “optional”. If only those paying personal taxes could achieve the same massive benefit from the Finance Minister, moving from mandated to “voluntary.”
In response? RBC published new guidance on how they would respond, going forward with diminished expectations, and then RBC, more or less simultaneously, terminated their entire enterprise sustainability team – including the people tasked with developing the bank’s “sustainable finance” strategy.
Gone, as of now, confirmed by a variety of sources, none of whom would speak on the record: three vice presidents: Sean Drygas, VP Sustainability Strategy & Performance, Jen Livingston, VP Enterprise Climate Strategy, and Keith Robertson, Vice President, ESG Risk – Enterprise Risk.
Also, all of the Sustainability and Strategy Performance team of 9. The team that had, just the week before, delivered their Sustainable Finance investment and reporting strategy recommendations to the RBC Board. And widely expected? More cuts to come.
The bank’s board says the bank’s climate progress is “on track.” The sad reality is that the bank no longer has an emissions target to track against! So… greenwash away folks… There’s no longer any downside risk to saying whatever you want.
There’s a lot to be said for re-examining Canada’s version of capitalism, when the very people tasked with protecting the environment from harm, and protecting their citizens’ health, futures, and our shared prosperity, can so unabashedly hand all the keys to our vast resources over to the largest corporations in the country – reshaping laws in a way very few citizens support, and with next to no accountability going forward.
As for RBC: Now, and without a doubt and little competition, by far, Canada’s dirtiest bank. The seventh largest funder of big oil in the world last year. And whose CEO richly deserves a spot on that Newsweek list.
If you care about climate action, perhaps consider selling your shares, and / or moving your accounts to where you can see better (or maybe even any?) climate performance. We would strongly commend multi-year Clean50 Award winner Vancity, if you have the option – or if you don’t, National Bank, as having the best sustainability scores amongst the big 6.
My colleague Nell has done a deep dive into RBC’s broken promises, their many scaled back commitments, and their vanishing sustainability reports. Read it here.
