The federal Crown corporation will offer loans dedicated to activities that will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Its social bonds will support initiatives like affordable infrastructure and “equity-seeking businesses” led or majority-owned by women, Indigenous people, people from Black and other racialized communities, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2+ community. (The Logic)

Talking point: The new financing mechanisms build on Export Development Canada’s green-bond program launched in 2014. Funds from those bonds have financed transactions worth more than $2 billion, the organization said in a release. The framework is part of EDC’s sustainability strategy. The organization is under pressure to shift away from oil and gas financing following the federal government’s commitment to end all support for overseas fossil-fuel projects this year. EDC said its support for the sector decreased 35 per cent in the past three years, from $12.5 billion in 2018 to $8.1 billion in 2020.