Schulich Teams With Corporate Knights to Create National Climate Finance Index
TORONTO – Wednesday, June 26, 2024 – York University’s Schulich School of Business, the top ranked school in Canada for sustainability, and Corporate Knights, one of the world’s leading sustainable economy media and research companies, are developing one of Canada’s first ever climate finance indexes. The new national index will track and measure corporate spending targeted at accelerating decarbonization efforts.
As part of the process of developing the index, Corporate Knights and Schulich will host a session on Wednesday, June 26 involving two dozen leaders from the building, transportation and power sectors who will engage in a cross-sector approach at finding ways to measure decarbonization. The session will take place in the former TSX boardroom at Schulich’s downtown management centre and will be moderated by Diane Fox Carney, a public policy expert with a strong focus on energy and climate change.
Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights, called the meeting a “gathering of Canadian industry leaders driving the growth of Canada’s clean economy” and said the index being developed will provide synthesis metrics showing actual annual investments in climate solutions in relation to what is required to decarbonize Canada’s transport, power and buildings sectors.
Olaf Weber, the CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance at Schulich, is spearheading the initiative on behalf of the School. According to Professor Weber, the development of a climate finance index “addresses the uncertainties around what companies really do to achieve their climate goals.” Adds Weber: “An index that addresses how much companies invest to achieve their goals presents a more objective indicator than general announcements in sustainability reports.”
The index will serve as a useful tool for companies to track and measure their climate performance against peers within their industries while also providing important information for governments formulating public policy decisions around decarbonization.
Following the meeting, Corporate Knights magazine will publish the synthesis report detailing Canada’s Climate Investment Gap and will unveil the new Climate Finance Index, with index weightings by sector to show Canada’s climate investments versus requirements. Sustainability experts at the Schulich School of Business will provide in-depth analysis of the Climate Finance Index results.
