TD Bank joins other major financial institutes to commit to ambition climate action plan

November 12th, 2020

Awake Goy

TB Bank Group announced its climate action plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The Group’s commitment to a global climate action plan makes them the latest major financial institution along with Morgan Stanley and Barclays.

According to TD’s action plan, it will “establish a Sustainable Finance and Corporate Transitions Group to support clients and promote long-term sustainable economic growth” and “prohibit new project-specific financial services directly related to the exploration, development or production of oil and gas in the Arctic Circle.”

“Climate change is a critical environmental and business challenge and will require significant effort over the long term to help economies transition successfully to the low-carbon future,” Bharat Masrani, president and CEO, of TD Bank Group, said. “TD’s climate action plan builds on a long history of environmental leadership and positions the Bank as a central player in the work needed to enable sustainable growth for our customers and clients, the communities we serve and the economies we support.”

TD will join a list of other Canadian banks who prohibit the financing of drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Refuge.

“It’s notable that TD has at least taken one step towards the goal of phasing out fossil fuels by pledging not to directly fund destructive drilling in the Arctic,” Ben Cushing, senior campaign representative at Sierra Club, said.

But according to Sierra Club, the group’s new plan “does not address the bank’s funding of Canadian tar sands, which is one of the most highly-polluting fuel sources on the planet.” TD is listed as the world’s biggest funder of tar sands oil spending more than $22.5 billion into the industry between 2016 and 2019, according to an annual Banking on Climate Change fossil fuel finance report.

“Committing to net-zero financed emissions by 2050 is a good step forward, and in recent months has become the new baseline for banks looking to clean up their act on climate,” Cushing said. “Now this commitment needs to be followed up with critical next steps for actually getting there, including a near-term target for emissions reductions and a clear plan to phase out financing for fossil fuels immediately.

Read TD Bank Groups climate action plan here.