RBC plans to triple renewable funding, reports little progress on oil and gas emissions

financialpost.com:

TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada plans to ramp up its renewable energy funding, even as it also reported little progress on reducing the emissions intensity of its oil and gas financing.

In its latest annual climate report Wednesday, the bank set a goal to triple renewable energy funding to $15 billion by 2030 and said it plans to direct $1 billion to climate solutions by the end of the decade.

RBC has also created its own “decarbonization finance” category to help direct funding, as progress on creating industry-wide green finance standards remains stuck at the federal government.

“The actions we are announcing today will help support our clients in their efforts to reduce emissions, contribute to bringing more renewable energy online and provide needed capital to innovative climate solutions,” Jennifer Livingstone, RBC’s vice-president of climate, said in a statement.

The bank also disclosed that the emissions intensity of its oil and gas funding was “relatively flat” last year compared with a 2019 baseline, while its goal is to reduce the measure by between 11 per cent and 35 per cent by the end of the decade.

RBC has said it’s better to work with oil and gas companies to reduce their emissions intensity, even as they ramp up production and total emissions, rather than cut off funding as pushed by some climate advocates.

The bank did not disclose in the report how its total amount of low-carbon energy funding compared to its fossil fuel financing, which is emerging as a key measure of bank climate progress.

Research firm BloombergNEF found RBC had directed about 37 cents to low carbon sources for every dollar to fossil fuels in 2022, or US$11.5 billion to low-carbon sources compared with US$31.2 billion to fossil fuels.