EDC uses environmental review directives on less than 1% of transactions

 (Globe & Mail, Toronto, 3 November 2023) Canada’s export financing agency applies its own flagship environmental and social review process in less than 1% of the transactions it supports, the Auditor-General of Canada’s office has found. An audit report released to Parliament Thursday determined that of nearly 7,800 loans EDC supported between May, 2019, and March, 2023, just 33 (or 0.4%) were reviewed under EDC’s Environmental and Social Review Directive. The report recommended that EDC apply the directive more broadly and warned that when it does not, it’s at elevated risk of financing projects that increase greenhouse gas emissions, harm biodiversity and violate human rights, and operating at cross-purposes to the federal government’s own commitments.

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