TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada’s Royal Bank of Canada will abandon its sustainable finance goals as industry practices for measuring and reporting sustainable finance have evolved, it said on Tuesday.
“We have reviewed our methodology and have concluded that it may not have appropriately measured certain of our sustainable finance activities as presented on a cumulative basis,” Canada’s biggest lender said in its 2024 sustainability report published on Tuesday.
“We are considering potential changes to our overall approach to sustainable finance, including our Sustainable Finance Framework,” the bank said.
It said last year’s changes to Canada’s Competition Act limited banks from sharing certain sustainability disclosures and the progress being made.
RBC and other big banks have quit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a United Nations-sponsored initiative set up by Mark Carney, who won an election on Monday and will stay on as Canada’s Prime Minister.
Campaigners worry banks are seizing on a shift in the political climate, particularly under U.S. President Donald Trump, to dilute commitments to act quickly on decarbonising their portfolios.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto; editing by Barbara Lewis)
