Sustainable Finance Action Council - Fifth Plenary Meeting

September 23, 2022

The Sustainable Finance Council (SFAC) held its fifth meeting on September 23, 2022.

The SFAC discussed the Taxonomy Roadmap Report, led by the SFAC’s Taxonomy Technical Expert Group (Taxonomy TEG) with support from the Canadian Climate Institute and the Institute for Sustainable Finance. This report includes recommendations for defining green and transition investment, which the Taxonomy TEG had developed over the last year, including through extensive information and consultation sessions. The SFAC agreed that the SFAC Chair would proceed with final steps to submit the Taxonomy Roadmap Report to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. 

The SFAC Chair also provided an overview of efforts aimed at providing more details and transparency on the SFAC’s work and engagement activities, including updating the SFAC website.

The new SFAC working group on net-zero capital allocation strategies, which held its first kick-off meeting in September, provided an update to the SFAC. The update included an overview of the high-level objectives and proposed structure of the working group with more details and work to be developed over the coming months. 

A session on climate-related financial disclosures was chaired by the SFAC Disclosure Technical Expert Group lead. The session started with an update on the work developing advice on mandatory climate disclosures. The SFAC Data Technical Expert Group lead also provided an overview of the work to identify recommendations to improve climate data and analytics to further support disclosures. The session was then followed by updates on the development of climate-related financial disclosures standards and guidelines from Financial Reporting and Assurance Standards Canada, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Canadian Securities Administrators.

Participating organizations

• ATB Financial
• Aviva Canada
• BMO Financial Group          
• British Columbia Investment Management Corporation
• Canada Life  
• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board      
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce        
• CWB Financial Group
• Desjardins Group
• Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan  
• Intact Financial Corporation 
• Manulife        
• National Bank Financial       
• Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS)         
• Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan      
• PSP Investments
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Scotiabank
• Sun Life
• TD Bank Group        
• The Co-operators Group       
• University Pension Plan        
• Vancity          

Also in attendance was the Official Sector Coordinating Group, made up of:

• Alberta Securities Commission
• Autorité des marchés financiers
• Bank of Canada
• British Columbia Financial Services Authority
• British Columbia Securities Commission
• Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Finance Canada
• Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario
• Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions
• Ontario Securities Commission

PwC Canada, a contracted external service provider, also attended the meeting.

Additional speakers

The Canadian Climate Institute, an external knowledge partner, attended the session on defining green and transition investment to provide any support for technical questions.

Additional panelists on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures included Financial Reporting and Assurance Standards Canada.