[00:00:06-00:00:32] – Dominique Barker
The world’s got some major challenges with regards to global emissions. We produce 50 billion metric tons of global emissions annually. 40% of that goes into sinks, forests and oceans, so green and blue and about 60% is currently emitted. And that’s what we need to get down to net zero.
[00:00:43-00:01:02] – Victor G. Dodig
CIBC’s sole purpose is to make our clients’ ambition to reality. We’ve been in business since 1867. We’ve transformed ourselves throughout the decades and throughout the last century and a half, and our goal is to continue to do that into the future, particularly when it comes to sustainable financing activities in a sustainable future.
[00:01:04-00:01:40] – Kikelomo Lawal
I think partnerships are crucial, number one, because no one is going to achieve these things solo. No one is going to achieve these things in isolation. It really is about sharing information. It is about evolving as data becomes more available, as information becomes more sophisticated, more advanced, we can all move forward together. CIBC is engaged in a number of partnerships. We have partnerships with the Institute for Sustainable Finance. We are part of the Sustainable Finance Action Council. We are also members of Rocky Mountain Center for Climate-Aligned Finance.
[00:01:40-00:01:56] – Kikelomo Lawal
CIBC’s climate transition strategy involves, of course, a 2050 target for achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions and that’s both with respect to our operational activities and our financing activities.
[00:01:58-00:02:33] – Victor G. Dodig
Banks and our clients focus on commercially viable solutions. The economics of change, the economics of sustainability, need to work, and they do work when they are constructed in the right way. At the heart of change is technology and our financing of technology activities to reduce GHG emissions in the non-renewable sector as well as Project Carbon, which is a multi-bank effort to tokenize carbon credits for those clients who wish to invest using the blockchain, using tokenization techniques, matching suppliers of carbon credits with buyers of carbon credits.
[00:02:33-00:02:53] – Dominique Barker
CIBC is partnering with Lightsource BP to help them grow their global platform. We provide financial and advisory services and, of course, insight from our own global platform, helping them achieve their own sustainability objectives by understanding them directly, understanding how the client wants to grow and how they want to achieve their own objectives.
[00:02:55-00:03:36] – Nick Boyle
I suppose in its very simplest form, our ambition is to put as much solar into the world as possible. We recently have launched an initiative to increase our aspirations to do 25 gigawatts by the end of 2025, and I think that’s born out of the fact that we have built a huge amount of momentum over the last number of years and we’re looking to fulfill the potential that that momentum allows us. Since we’ve done the deal with BP, we’ve moved from five countries to now 15 countries, and I’m not saying that we’re going to sit back in 15 countries. We’re going to continue to add to the number of countries in order that we can continue to deliver more solar to our world.
[00:03:37-00:04:03] – Nick Boyle
CIBC has been hugely supportive in us being able to deliver our sustainable journey, and I think that it is really essential that those larger banks, those larger financial institutions, take the lead in the way that CIBC and others have done. Only by doing that, can we make sure that we bring all the rest of the industry, whether that’s banking or other financial support institutions, pensions and the like, along with us into this space.
[00:04:06-00:04:49] – Dominique Barker
Project Carbon is a trading platform for carbon credits, and its objective is to remove friction from the voluntary carbon markets and to make it easier for everybody to transact in carbon credits, whether they be a buyer or a seller. We’re also providing price transparency, which is a key feature in the voluntary carbon markets and having price on carbon could incentivize additional projects, which we view is very important. Another key feature of the platform is the global nature of it and that collaboration element of it. We’ve brought in a number of people from the ecosystem, whether they be registries, suppliers, buyers, measurement reporting and verification companies.
[00:04:49-00:05:26] – Dominique Barker
This is a global collaboration to address a global problem, and the more people we have involved, the more supply of credits we have and therefore the more likely we are to achieve our goal of decarbonization. And there’s some great Canadian technologies that exist right now. So, for example, Carbon Engineering or Svante or CarbonCure or Carbicrete. These are all emerging technologies that are either carbon avoidance or carbon removal, which is even better, and having that robust pricing will help to finance the projects and to help grow the research and development in those areas.
[00:05:29-00:06:11] – Nick Boyle
From my perspective, if we as a world and we certainly as an industry, don’t have supportive financial institutions that are absolutely essential to finance this new world that we’re moving into, then everything we’re talking about, of COP 26 or any other climate initiative, is simply dead in the water. We need the lifeblood, which is financial support, we can’t do it on our own. And therefore, I think that it’s essential that these companies, and indeed countries as well, take the lead and support financially what it is that we’re doing, because it can’t be done for free.
[00:06:11-00:06:41] – Nick Boyle
I think the advantage is, clearly with the likes of renewables, is the predictable nature of the revenue streams they create, which makes it less challenging from a bank perspective. But by the same token, I think the volumes that we’re going need in order to deliver the initiatives that are essential in order to get our world back on an even keel and require that every single institution get involved, not just the ones that are taking the lead, but they, in turn, then need to be followed by other institutions.
[00:06:43-00:07:22] – Kikelomo Lawal
So our ambition is to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but along the way we’ve got to demonstrate progress and we’ve got to evolve our thinking. A part of that is by CIBC both leading and enabling. In the leading category, I’ll say it’s about advisory services to our clients, it’s about enabling, as well, their activities, all toward the ultimate goal. And along the way we’ll share our progress and have some interim goals, as well. I think as the sector is changing, it’s important for CIBC to remain true to the goals that it set, it’s important for CIBC to evolve its thinking, to be involved, and to be partners.
[00:07:31-00:07:43] – Nick Boyle
I think the world has definitely changed. I think the business as usual as set 10 years ago, is no longer going to do it. We need to redefine what business as usual means. We need to shift from the concept of gigawatts to terawatts. We need to shift from talking in terms of millions of investment to billions of investment.
[00:07:44-00:08:02] – Victor G. Dodig
Our purpose is to make our clients’ ambitions a reality, and we do that every day and everything we do with our team to serve our clients. That would include sustainability, understanding where our clients want to go with their businesses, and how sustainability plays a role in how we can align our own purpose with their goals.
