Sustainable Finance 2

PPF organized the second round of national discussions following Sustainable Finance 1 on the need for affected sectors, their financiers and investors, and federal and provincial policymakers and financial and regulatory authorities to advance key recommendations from the Expert Panel’s 2019 report Mobilizing Finance for Sustainable Growth.

Global investors have proven themselves increasingly hesitant about exposure to climate risks, both from climate change itself and from the transformation to an economy with significantly reduced GHG emissions. They’ve made this clear to Canadian resource companies, financial institutions and many others. Pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and insurers, among others, now are resolute in screening for climate risk. The sudden and steep economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has not reversed their resolve. There currently is as much inevitability to the sustainable finance movement as there is to the worsening of physical climate impacts in our communities and economy. Still, the issues and criteria – and how to respond to the inevitability factor – are not well understood, and implementation is still at an early stage.

PPF hosted a virtual keynote address and moderated armchair discussion with Governor Tiff Macklem and Barbara Zvan in addition to four virtual roundtables.

The four virtual roundtables will focused on the following elements moving forward:

1. Fostering and strengthening access to reliable climate information and analytics through the creation of Centre for Climate Information and Analytics (C3IA);
2. Developing a capital mobilization plan for a transition to a low carbon economy;
3. Leading the development of Canada’s transition taxonomy and expanding Canada’s green fixed income market, such as green bonds, loans, and mortgages; and
4. Supporting Canada’s oil and natural gas industry through the use of sustainable finance in building a low-emissions, globally competitive future.

As the Expert Panel report said, “finance is not going to solve climate change, but it has a critical role to play in supporting the real economy through the transition.

Read the Report.