S-243Enacting Climate Commitments Act

What it does

• Enacts the Climate-Aligned Finance Act, which defines climate commitments to include the UN climate treaty, the Paris Agreement, Canada’s net-zero law and 1.5°C-aligned emissions cuts.
• Requires reporting entities to publish annual public climate alignment reports with targets, plans, emissions data, progress, and information on climate-related lobbying and involved directors and officers.
• Requires entities to set climate targets for 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045 and 2050, and limits the use of offsets and future carbon-removal technologies in plans.
• Adds extra reporting duties for federal financial institutions, including counting financed emissions, setting portfolio and sector targets, and describing how they engage with clients to reduce emissions-intensive activity.
• Directs the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to publish capital and funding guidelines that account for climate risk, including higher risk weights for fossil fuel exposures.
• Requires climate expertise on several federal boards, bars some appointments and gifts tied to organisations not aligned with climate commitments, and creates a duty for directors and officers to act to align their entity with those commitments.