Taxonomy Foundations
Please feel free to answer only the questions that are of the most interest and relevance to you.
It is proposed that the design and implementation of the Canadian taxonomy be informed by the following six principles: Credible; usable; interoperable; dynamic; regionally specific; and prioritized.
2a. Do you agree or disagree with these proposed principles as the foundation for the taxonomy?
Select
Do No Significant Harm and Minimum Social Safeguards
Please feel free to answer only the questions that are of the most interest and relevance to you.
The proposed taxonomy framework for Canada includes a set of Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) criteria and Minimum Social Safeguards (MSS), which will be designed to ensure that climate mitigation objectives do not adversely impact other environmental and social values, or legal rights. It is proposed that issuers must disclose the extent to which they meet specific criteria for both DNSH and MSS in order to claim taxonomy alignment.
4a. Do you agree or disagree with the proposed partial alignment approach, which would require entities to disclose the extent to which DNSH/MSS criteria are or are not met rather than requiring full alignment with all DNSH/MSS criteria?
Select
5a. Do you agree or disagree with the proposed scope of objectives to be covered under the DNSH and MSS frameworks?
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6a. Do you agree or disagree with the proposed approach to grounding the DNSH/MSS frameworks in Canadian legislation and going beyond existing laws and standards where necessary?
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8a. Do you agree or disagree that different DNSH/MSS standards should apply to projects or entities of different sizes? E.g. more comprehensive disclosures required for larger projects and/or entities, with more streamlined disclosures for smaller projects and/or entities?
Select
Section 3: Activity Classification Framework
Please feel free to answer only the questions that are of the most interest and relevance to you.
The activity classification framework proposes that the green category should be limited to activities with zero or near-zero emissions that make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation or to activities that directly enable zero to near-zero emissions climate solutions (e.g., electric vehicle manufacturing facilities)
12a. Do you agree or disagree with this approach?
Select
The framework proposes that the transition category should include activities that have materially high emissions today but have the potential to decarbonize sufficiently to align with the green definition (i.e., zero to near-zero emissions) by 2050. These activities are likely to experience stable or growing demand in Paris-aligned representative pathways due to a lack of technically feasible low-carbon substitutes (e.g., major decarbonization investments in steel, cement, and chemicals manufacturing).
13a. Do you agree or disagree with this approach?
Select
14a. Do you agree or disagree that the proposed guardrails for the transition category (both for the whole-of-activity and measures pathways) are sufficient to protect the science-based credibility of the category and reduce the risk of carbon lock-in, while supporting usability?
Select
The report proposes that initial research on the abatement measures category should be conducted in 2027 and include select emissions-reduction measures for activities that have high Scope 1 emissions today and are unable to achieve the life cycle emissions reductions necessary to align with Paris-aligned pathways (e.g. major decarbonization investments in the upstream production, refining, and distribution of oil and gas). These are activities that are highly likely to experience declining demand as the world transitions to clean energy and alternative technologies.
15a. Do you agree or disagree that the taxonomy should include a third “abatement” category, as proposed, that covers demand-decline activities?
Strongly disagree (i.e., disagree on fundamentals)
15b. Please explain your answer in the space below
We need to move more capital into Paris-aligned investments. This cannot include supporting fossil fuel production which is the biggest source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Canada and continues to grow every year.
The report proposes an illustrative list of guardrails for the abatement measures category that, if formally developed and finalized, would be designed to prevent carbon lock-in and ensure the abatement measures category remains credible within a Paris-aligned framework. When thinking about the taxonomy’s credibility and usability, please provide feedback on this illustrative list of guardrails.
16. Should any additional guardrails be considered?
The production and use of fossil fuels is a major cause of the climate warming trend that the proposed Taxonomy seeks to address through financial investments. It accordingly seems incongruous that any part of the fossil fuel production and transportation process should be considered to be "sustainable". This is particularly the case when non-polluting and increasingly cheaper renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to fossil fuels.
As acknowledged in the Report, despite any abatement measures that may reduce GHG emissions from oil and gas production, total emissions can still rise if output increases. We see that year by year as emissions intensity has decreased in the oil sans sector but production has increaseed faster and so total emissions continue to increase. And a substantial further increase in production will indeed need to take place to fill the proposed new pipeline to the BC coast.
To the extent that fossil fuel production and transportation continues in the near term, decarbonization should be addressed through regulations mandating measures to reduce carbon intensity of these activities.
If it is deemed appropriate to include an Abatement category in the Taxonomy, the list of guardrails specified in the Report should all be applied to all measures permitted in the Abatement category. As well, the "significant reduction" requirement in certain of the proposed guardrails should set a very high bar. If carbon capture measures are included in the Abatement category, these should not include enhanced oil recovery where the carbon that is captured is used to extract more oil. How can making it less expensive to produce oil be considered "sustainable"?
Section 4: Technical Screening Criteria
Please feel free to answer only the questions that are of the most interest and relevance to you.
18a. Do you agree or disagree with the proposed approach for developing technical screening criteria?
Select
Final questions
22. Overall, how satisfied are you with the proposed sustainable finance taxonomy framework?
Select