Paris-Aligned Climate Lobbying

Resolution Text

Shareholders request that BMO complete its disclosures of lobbying and policy influence activities, both direct and indirect – through trade associations, coalitions, alliances, and other organizations – to fulfill its commitment to lobby “in a manner consistent with [its] support for the aims and objectives of the Paris Agreement.”

Supporting Statement:
This resolution is consistent with the Global Standard on Responsible Corporate Climate Lobbying1 and the Business Associations Climate Action Guide.2

BMO made a commitment to net zero by 2050. BMO’s sectoral decarbonization modelling shows that supportive government policy is necessary for BMO to meet its own net zero targets.3

Its Statement on Political Contributions and Lobbying indicates that in engagement with elected officials it will “seek to do so in a manner consistent with our support for the aims and objectives of the Paris Agreement.”4

As part of its assessment of its client transition readiness, BMO tracks clients’ “policy engagement aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, summary of engagement activities, including consultations and partnerships, and disclosure of trade association memberships.”5

Yet, despite its own stated lobbying commitment and expectation of clients, BMO itself only discloses vague instances of climate-related lobbying, and only for BMO Global Asset Management, without stating positions taken.6 BMO also only discloses participation in select climate-related initiatives, omitting memberships in misaligned associations.7

For example, BMO maintains memberships in the Business Council of Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce which InfluenceMap finds “have engaged in opposition to real-economy climate policies in Canada and globally.”8 BMO neither discloses these memberships nor outlines how it is reconciling this contradiction.

BMO is also the exclusive sponsor of the annual Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) annual conference. InfluenceMap ranked CAPP the 5th most negative and influential industry associations on climate in the world.9 BMO’s sponsorship implies to the reasonable investor an alignment with CAPP.

Despite BMO’s analysis that it needs supportive government policy to meet its net zero targets, the bank is absent during public debates on significant climate policy, including regarding carbon pricing. The bank does not disclose whether it discusses these specific policy issues during government meetings, nor what its positions are.

Truist is an example of a bank with more complete climate lobbying disclosure.10 Moreover, energy companies like Enbridge also provide greater climate lobbying disclosure than BMO.11 Shareholders request that BMO completes its lobbying disclosures to remedy these gaps and  omissions.

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1 The Global Standard on Corporate Climate Lobbying, online at: climate-lobbying.com/.
2 Business Associations Climate Action Guide, online at:
exponentialroadmap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Business-associations-climate-action-guide-v-
1.0-final.pdf.
3 BMO, 2023 Climate Report, at 47-50, online at:
our-impact.bmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BMO_2023_CR_EN.pdf.
4 BMO, Statement on Political Contributions and Lobbying (2023), online at:
our-impact.bmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Stmt-Political-Contrib-Loybbing-EN-ACC-Feb2023.pdf. 
5 Ibid, at 38.
6 Ibid, at 46.
7 Ibid, at 28-30.
8 Influence Map, Canada’s Big Five Banks: Heading to Net Zero? (March 2024) online at:
influencemap.org/report/Canada-s-Big-Five-Banks-26501. 
9 Influence Map, data available upon free registration at:
influencemap.org/report/Corporate-Climate-Policy-Footprint-2022-20196?return_to=/report/Corporate-Climate-Policy-Footprint-2022-20196.
10 Truist 2023 Climate Lobbying Summary, online at:
filecache.investorroom.com/mr5ir_truist/871/Truist2023ClimateLobbyingSummary.pdf.
11 Enbridge, Climate Lobbying Report (May 2023) online at:
www.enbridge.com/~/media/Enb/Documents/Reports/Sustainability-Report-2022/Climate_Lobbying_Report.pdf.