BMO Financed $12.1 Billion in Renewable Energy in 2019

Published

August 10, 2020

Ambitions

From an enterprise-wide, operational perspective, BMO is carbon neutral. In 2020, it announced a goal to match 100% of global electricity usage with electricity produced from renewable sources.
In 2017, BMO set a new five-year target to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 15% by the end of fiscal year 2021, with fiscal year 2016 performance as a baseline.
At the end of fiscal 2018, the bank had achieved a reduction of 6.06% relative to its fiscal 2016 baseline, demonstrating good progress toward achieving its target. BMO is investigating setting science-based emissions reduction targets for the future.
BMO will mobilize $400 billion for sustainable finance by 2025, and it has launched an impact investment fund to find and scale solutions to sustainability challenges.

Members of the Power, Utilities, and Infrastructure team at BMO Capital Markets act as advisers on mergers and acquisitions, lead equity, and debt financing transactions, and they provide capital for project finance and other corporate facilities to companies that are active in renewable energy markets. In 2019, BMO Capital Markets participated in $7.9 billion of renewable energy equity and debt financing, and they provided $4.2 billion of loan commitments to renewable energy entities and projects (all figures in CAD).
BMO Capital Markets is committed to being a leader in sustainable finance. In 2019, BMO participated in US$9.4 billion of sustainable bond underwriting.
BMO Global Asset Management’s Responsible Investing team integrates ESG considerations into decision-making and ownership practices in its investment and asset management activities, and it advises other asset managers to do the same. In 2019 and 2020, climate change has been an investee engagement program priority.

BMO is undertaking a focused climate change and sustainable finance strategy review to chart its course.
The bank recognizes an opportunity to differentiate itself by developing innovative new products and business services that are related to climate change and offering financing solutions to assist customers during their transition to a lower-carbon economy.
The Sustainable Finance team engages with its customers and identifies market opportunities for sustainable finance products and services across BMO so that the bank can meet its sustainable finance commitment.
Opportunities are being addressed in innovative approaches to responsible investing by BMO Global Asset Management, where it is leveraging its position as trusted advisers to help align customer investments with sustainable objectives, and in Capital Markets, where the company has created a dedicated advisory capability that can support its clients in their work on sustainability.
BMO is committed to playing an active role as a convener and catalyst in mobilizing action that can effectively address the challenges posed by climate change. For example, the bank is participating in the Technical Committee on Green and Transition Finance in Canada to develop a National Standard of Canada for Green and Transition Finance.
In December 2019, BMO announced it was providing the first sustainability-linked loan in Canada.