The situation highlights the largely Canadian quandary faced by both the banks and their investors.
They remain some of the biggest financiers of fossil fuel producers globally, with TD the world’s top oil sands banker and RBC Canada’s biggest financier of fossil fuels, in 2020, according to the Rainforest Action Network.
“When we set the net-zero target, that wasn’t, for us, about divestment,” said Andrea Barrack, TD’s global head of sustainability and corporate citizenship, in an interview with Reuters.
None of the big Canadian banks has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which commits to finding pathways to net-zero emissions by 2050.