How Canada’s banks enable oil and gas production
Despite Canada’s climate change commitments, the country’s “big five” banks continue to finance and support the expansion of fossil fuel industries. In fact, the extent of the banks’ support since the oil price collapse in 2014 shows that this backing hinders Canada’s progress on reducing emissions.
These banks are perhaps the most powerful corporate entities in Canada, certainly among the largest and most profitable. They could be playing a crucial role to help Canada achieve its Paris Agreement commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The banking sectors in many other countries have committed to helping the world meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, but the big Canadian banks did not join in. This report explains why: Canada’s big banks continue to rely on profits from financing the fossil fuel industry despite the danger those investments pose for the future of our planet.
About the author
Donald Gutstein taught in the Simon Fraser University School of Communication for 30 years in areas of documentary research, journalism studies, information policy and propaganda analysis. Over the years he’s written more than 200 articles for Vancouver Magazine, The Georgia Straight, City Magazine, New Directions, Maclean’s, The Tyee, De Smog Blog and Vancouver Observer. As well, he’s written six books on subjects ranging from developer control of Vancouver planning and politics in the 1970s in Vancouver Ltd., to the privatization of the Internet in the 1990s in e.con, to the neoliberal and neoconservative influences on the Stephen Harper government in Harperism. His most recent book was The Big Stall: How Big Oil and Think Tanks Are Blocking Action On Climate Change in Canada. This book looks at fossil fuel policy in Canada over 50 years and climate change since it became a public issue in 1988 and its domination by Big Oil, business lobbies and neoliberal think tanks. He recently produced “Fossilized Finance: How Canada’s banks still enable oil and gas production” for the Corporate Mapping Project.
