How are banks financing the climate crisis?
When you deposit your money into the bank, it doesn’t just sit there. The banks can either lend or invest your money. Banks give out loans that are paid back over time with interest so that they earn more than they lent out. This is how banks make money.
The banks might give loans to individuals in the form of student loans, for example. Or they might give loans to fossil fuel companies like Enbridge. For example, Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline that is being built from Alberta to Superior, Michigan received over $40 billion collectively in loans from the Big 5.
Since 2016, the big 5 Canadian banks have provided over $1.1 TRILLION in fossil fuel financing to fossil fuels through loans and investments. Globally we are set to burn 50% more fossil fuels than is consistent with staying below 2 degrees warming. But our banks continue to finance fossil fuel expansion.
Without enormous loans from banks, (as well as support from big insurance firms) the destructive projects they finance would not be possible. This is why we demand the banks divest, because they are responsible for enabling fossil fuel production. Without their support, the fossil fuel industry will fall.
Visit the following resources to learn more about your banks fossil fuel investing and lending practices:
Graphic representing the Big 5’s fossil fuel financing. From left to right: CIBC - $148 billion, BMO - $179 billion, TD - $225 billion, Scotiabank $237 billion, RBC - $330 billion.
Graphic representing how much each of the Big 5 owns in oil and gas companies, as of 2021, from the CCPA Fossilized Finance report. From left to right: CIBC - $7 billion, BMO - $8 billion, Scotiabank - $9 billion, TD - $9 billion, RBC - $21 billion.