BMO RBC, Scotiabank, CIBC, TD Bank and National Bank joined 63 other global banks in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) that have pledged to eliminate emissions in their lending and investing portfolios by 2050, and to set interim targets for reaching that goal. (The Logic)

Talking point: NZBA is part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero (GFANZ) led by former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney in the lead- up to the COP26 climate conference in Scotland in November. “By Glasgow @COP26, the world will know which banks, asset managers and asset owners are part of the solution to climate change and which remain part of the problem,” Carney tweeted last month in reference to GFANZ membership. Vancity had been the only Canadian financial institution to join the alliance since it launched in April. The Big Six have all individually set 2050 net-zero targets over the past year. As part of the global alliance, they’ll have to set interim targets for 2030 within 18 months of joining and every five years thereafter. They’ll also have to publish standardized progress reports every year that include emissions levels and intensity. “I consider this important confirmation of the banks’ prior commitments to their net zero targets, as well as other initiatives,” Sean Cleary, executive director of Queen’s University’s Institute for Sustainable Finance, told The Logic. “It is also notable that it was a joint announcement, since collaboration and a shared commitment are critical components of our transition to a net-zero economy.”