RBC becomes world’s biggest fossil-fuel bank

BLOOMBERG 

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) topped JPMorgan Chase & Co last year to become the world’s largest backer of fossil-fuel companies, providing more fodder to critics who say the lender isn’t living up to its climate commitments.
Royal Bank provided $42.1 billion of funding to the industry, up 4.2% from a year earlier, surpassing the $39.2 billion provided by JPMorgan, according to the Rainforest Action Network’s 14th-annual “Banking on Climate Chaos” report. The figures include lending as well as debt and equity underwriting.
While Canada’s largest lender by assets has committed to zeroing out the emissions associated with its financing activities, environmentalists have increasingly targeted its involvement with fossil-fuel companies. The Toronto-based lender has especially come under fire for working with Canada’s oil-sands firms, which produce one of the world’s most carbon-intensive grades of crude.
“RBC is really a critical financier for tar sands, which is problematic both from an environmental and a human rights perspective,” April Merleaux, research manager for Rainforest Action Network, said in an interview.
JPMorgan had led the rankings since 2019, but its financing to the industry fell 42% last year. Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co posted similarly large declines. Many US oil producers used last year’s record profits to pay down debt, while others turned to private markets for financing. Investment-banking activity also slumped due to broader market turmoil.
Royal Bank set a goal last year of lowering the intensity of emissions that its oil and gas clients generate from operations by 35% by 2030.