Members of the Wet'suwet'en Indigenous delegation are traveling to Saskatoon, Canada for a press briefing and panel ahead of the annual general meeting of the Royal Bank of Canada on April 5th.
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Wet'suwet'en target RBC
Members of the Wet'suwet'en Indigenous delegation are traveling to Saskatoon, Canada for a press briefing and panel ahead of the annual general meeting of the Royal Bank of Canada on April 5th. The gathering follows a raid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the Gidimt'en camp on Wet'suwet'en territory, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been opposing the Coastal GasLink methane gas pipeline for years.
RBC is a major funder of the pipeline. Despite its membership in various climate alliances and internal pledges, recent data from Stand.earth found that RBC’s fossil fuel expansion-related funding jumped by almost half last year to USD $10.8 billion—its highest level since the Paris climate agreement was adopted in 2015. The pipeline is also partially owned by KKR and AIMCo. One of the world's wealthiest private equity firms and a leadingpolluter among its peers, KKR has committed to continue investing in fossil fuel projects despite publishing a climate action strategy, exposing investors to considerable climate-related risks.
This comes alongside an increasing trend of shareholder resolutions calling for no financing for fossil fuel expansion, recognition of Indigenous sovereignty, and greater transparency and disclosure on climate risk within Canadian and North American banks. The New York City Comptroller, responsible for managing the over USD $248 billion pension funds, filed a resolution at RBC demanding 2030 absolute emissions reduction targets for clients in the oil, gas, and utility sectors.
Gexit
German reinsurance company Munich Re dropped out of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance late last week, citing antitrust legal concerns the firm called “material.” The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance is a subgroup of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ. Munich Re is the largest firm to leave GFANZ since Vanguard exited in December. The move came just a day after 21 U.S. Attorneys General sent a letter to investment firms threatening antitrust lawsuits over their collective commitments to reduce carbon emissions. In a statement, Munich Re said it was “more effective to pursue our climate ambition to reduce global warming individually.”
Let’s hope so. Property insurance rates in Florida are set to jump 60% this year, largely due to the damages caused by increasingly destructive hurricanes and rising expenses in the reinsurance market.
Getting more from the World Bank
The World Bank last week posted its latest update to the Evolution Roadmap—a paper that will go to the Governors Board for discussion at the upcoming Spring Meetings. Even as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen rejected a near-term capital increase, it will be the first time the Bank management, shareholders, and NGOs will discuss the COP27 outcome, which called for the reassessment of multilateral development banks. The Bridgetown Agenda, spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, will also be discussed and presented in its final form.
On April 6th at 9am ET, we are hosting a press briefing to preview climate-related issues ahead, including the Bridgetown Agenda proposals, Special Drawing Rights and loan-to-equity ratio, and the World Bank Evolution Roadmap. Click here to register and hear from Avinash Persaid, Rachel Kyte, Rishikesh Ram Bhandari, and Joe Thwaites.
Workers stand to lose billions
New anti-responsible investing legislation in Texas will cost workers’ pension funds over $6 billion, according to state retirement fund managers. The latest proposed boycott bill prohibits the state’s public employee retirement system from working with asset managers that consider “any social, political, or ideological interest beyond what federal or state law requires.” Pension fund managers and fiscal analysts in other red states proposing similar boycott legislation estimated multi-billion dollar losses to workers’ pensions. In addition to the billions in losses to pensions, several red-state taxpayers are paying millions in additional costs on municipal bonds as a result of their political crusade.
Fund managers are also facing additional regulatory scrutiny for their environmental, social, and governance-focused exchange traded funds as regulators attempt to rein in pervasive ‘greenwashing.’ Tens of thousands of exchange-traded funds are being downgraded as rating agency MSCI Inc. overhauls fund evaluations.