Canadian Banks’ Fossil-Fuel Exposure Outpaces US, European Peers

  • Climate change group’s report highlights Canadian exposure
  • About 5% of the country’s GDP stems from oil and gas sector

Canada was the world’s fourth-largest producer of crude and other petroleum liquids in 2022.

Photographer: Jason Franson/Bloomberg
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Canada’s biggest banks are more than twice as exposed to the fossil-fuel business as their European and US counterparts, according to a report from climate change think tank InfluenceMap.

The country’s largest lenders — Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce — committed 18.4% of their combined corporate lending and bond and equity underwriting to the sector in 2022, says the report, published Wednesday.