RBC, Wall Avenue banks face local weather calls for from NYC pensions, comptroller

New York Metropolis’s comptroller and three NYC pension plans are calling on Royal Financial institution of Canada (RBC) (RY.TO)(RY) to spell out absolute greenhouse gasoline emissions targets for 2030.

In a press release on Tuesday, Canada’s largest industrial financial institution was cited with Wall Avenue friends Financial institution of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for “not taking a primary step of setting interim discount targets that account for complete portfolio emissions.”

New York Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, the New York Metropolis Workers’ Retirement System, Lecturers’ Retirement System, and Board of Schooling Retirement System say they’ve filed shareholder proposals recommending “an absolute discount goal aligned with a science-based web zero emissions pathway” for every lender.

“Shareholders applauded these banks after they set net-zero targets – however it could’t be all speak. We anticipate them to take the steps wanted now to cut back emissions on the timeline to which they’ve dedicated,” Lander acknowledged on Tuesday. “Absent a concrete plan to cut back absolute emissions in the actual world within the close to time period, any net-zero plan rings hole.”

In keeping with Tuesday’s launch, as of November 2022, the three New York Metropolis Retirement programs mixed had a complete holding of:

• 7.74 million shares of Financial institution of America inventory valued at US$239.04 million

• 437 thousand shares of Goldman Sachs inventory valued at US$168.82 million

• 2.99 million shares of JPMorgan Chase inventory valued at US$412.91 million, and

• 293 thousand shares of Royal Financial institution of Canada inventory valued at US$28.92 million

The entire named establishments are members of the UN’s Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which features a dedication to “yearly publish absolute emissions and emissions depth according to finest observe and inside a yr of setting targets.”

Among the many huge Canadian banks, RBC has confronted essentially the most criticism for its ties to the fossil gas sector.

Final month, when HSBC Holdings introduced plans to halt new lending or capital markets financing for brand new oil and gasoline fields, the Canadian unit of the bank set to be sold to RBC was exempted. In October, the Competition Bureau of Canada launched an investigation into “false or deceptive environmental representations” by the financial institution.

Yahoo Finance Canada has reached out to RBC for remark.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Observe him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

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