Paris Agreement alignment of EDC (NOT!)

(Perspectives Climate Group, Freiburg, 15 February 2022) Perspectives Climate Group has launched a new 41 page report which finds that despite commitments made at and after COP26, Export Development Canada's activities are not aligned with the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degree objective. In total, the  exposure  of  EDC’s  portfolio to carbon-intensive activities stood at 26% – equalling a total exposure of about USD$16 billion – by the end of 2020.  Support for ‘cleantech’ activities, the Canadian label for climate- or sustainability-related activities, was small compared to fossil fuel-related support standing at about USD 2.33 billion per year. Total portfolio exposure is not reported for ‘cleantech’ and a definition of ‘cleantech’ based on a positive list of activities does not exist. Currently, negative emission technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) are eligible for the cleantech definition. While there are reasons to justify CCS in some cases, we deem it as misleading to classify them as ‘cleantech’ because they can lead to prolonging fossil fuel infrastructure lifetime and to spurring fossil fuel demand. EDC's  official  exclusion  policy  for  fossil  fuels  only  applies  to  thermal  coal, not mettalurgical coal, another high-carbon intensive and important Canadian export good. Limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires massively re-directing financial flows away from carbon-intensive activities and towards low-carbon activities. However, despite commitments made under Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement ... many countries still provide significant financial support to fossil fuel value chains, among others, through their export credit agencies (ECAs). Canada's National Observer notes that EDC needs to clean up its act on climate.