Banks moving forward on measuring key climate financing measure

TORONTO - National Bank and CIBC have committed to moving forward on measuring how their fossil fuel financing compares with how much money they help direct toward renewable energy.

The measure, known as the energy supply ratio, is meant to provide a simple way to see how much banks are helping or hindering the push toward a low emissions economy. 

National Bank says that following discussions with advocacy group SHARE, the bank agreed to develop and disclose its own methodology for the measure by April 1 next year.

CIBC also recently announced that it had started tracking the measure internally and released details on how it calculates the ratio.

The bank said in its sustainability report released March 13 that it acknowledged the importance of the energy supply ratio to its stakeholders, including the 37.1 per cent of shareholders who last year voted in favour of a SHARE proposal pushing the bank to disclose it. 

According to calculations by research firm BloomberNEF, which pioneered the energy supply ratio, Canadian banks financed 61 cents in low-carbon projects for every dollar going to fossil fuels in 2024, well below the global average of 89 cents to a dollar. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CM; TSX:NA)