• Severe weather events happened due to financing in fossil fuel companies.
• Toronoto's top financial firms are responsible for 1.44 billion tonnes of carbon emissions.

Toronto's top financial firms provided over CAD 1.43 trillion (about USD 1.1 trillion) to fossil fuel companies in 2022, leading to a humongous rise in carbon emissions to 1.44 billion tonnes, notes a new report from the Toronto Climate Observatory.

The impact is nearly double Canada's total emissions and around 100x the emissions from Toronto alone.

“The report demonstrates, beyond any doubt, the critical role that the City of Toronto must play in the fight against global climate change and a just transition to low carbon economy, given the outsized contribution its city-headquartered financial institutions are having on our climate,” said Dr. Robert Soden, lead of the Toronto Climate Observatory at U of T and a co-author of the report.

The report shows that many financial institutions underreport their real emissions, sometimes by as much as 2000%. The lack of accurate reporting by these organisations makes it even harder to hold them accountable for their climate impact.

In 2022, Southern Ontario and Toronto witnessed severe weather events like flooding, which cost a total of CAD 940 million in damages in 2022. These untoward incidents are linked to the emissions from financial institutions.

Experts have warned that human-induced events can weaken and threaten Canada's economy and have called for stronger regulations regarding financial institutions' climate impact.

Following are some of the recommendations:

• They should use uniform standards to report emissions;
• The government should make it necessary for them to create a credible carbon reduction plan, and it should also oversee their activities; and
• Toronto should devise climate policies and ensure that financial institutions report their emissions accurately.

For a detailed view of the report, click here.

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Source: Toronto Climate Observatory