Royal Bank of Canada has set out its long-awaited initial targets on lowering financed emissions by the end of the decade as part of its commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The bank says it aims to reduce its financed emissions on the production side of the oil and gas sector by 35 per cent on an intensity basis, meaning emissions linked per barrel of oil rather than an absolute reduction.
For oil and gas emissions created largely when the product is used, such as driving a car, RBC says it’s going to try and reduce financed emissions by between 11 and 27 per cent, depending on the scenarios used and policies that come into place.
In power generation, it wants to reduce direct emissions by 54 per cent, while for the automotive sector it has set a target of 47 per cent, both also intensity targets.
RBC is the last of the Big Five banks to set out interim targets as required by commitments to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which has urged members to be aggressive when setting targets as the next few years are crucial in the fight against climate change.
Climate campaigners have increasingly focused efforts on the financial industry as a way to reduce emissions because of the influence they hold in the economy.
