The RBC Climate Action Institute created to share ideas and inspire action for Canada's net-zero journey

The Institute will bring together research insights and industry experts to help clients and communities apply climate solutions

TORONTO, April 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is expanding its Economics and Thought Leadership group to create a dedicated approach to climate policy research and action across key sectors of the economy.

The RBC Climate Action Institute will bring together economists, policy analysts and business strategists to help research and advance ideas that can contribute to Canada's climate progress.

The institute will work closely with businesses and industry partners to design practical ways to reduce net emissions. It will focus initially on buildings & real estate, agriculture, and energy systems.

We believe that sharing knowledge and potential solutions that are industry specific will help overcome challenges that clients and partners currently face when trying to move their plans forward.

The Institute will undertake work that advances a key pillar of RBC's climate strategy, the RBC Climate Blueprint, focusing on providing ideas in areas where it believes it can have a meaningful impact.

The inspiration for the Institute grew out of work that RBC Economics & Thought Leadership began with The $2 Trillion Transition, which forecasted the private and public capital we believe would be needed to finance Canada's transition to net-zero in key sectors of the economy. Further, alongside clients and leaders in the agricultural sector, the team worked to identify opportunities for advancing climate-smart agriculture, while meeting growing global food demand.

This collaborative approach has been welcomed by many of our partners engaged in the initiative who also shared that a similar approach could be applied in other areas of the economy.

RBC has partnered with Maple Leaf Foods, Loblaw, Nutrien and many other leading companies to create the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agriculture (CANZA). CANZA came together as we recognized a strong need in agriculture for potential net-zero solutions, and started researching and publishing reports on the sector such as The Next Green Revolution.

The RBC Climate Action Institute will continue similar collaborative efforts with partners in the buildings sector, including working with the Brookfield Sustainability Institute at George Brown College.

"The coming years are truly critical for Canada's economic and net-zero ambitions with many complex challenges to resolve," said John Stackhouse, senior vice president, Office of the CEO. "We believe that this collaborative approach will be an important catalyst as RBC and other organizations consider climate solutions."

Across RBC we are proud of the progress that our teams have been making in helping clients and communities in which we operate to transition to net-zero, including:

• The formation of the Environmental Markets Solutions Group in Capital Markets, offering deep expertise and execution capabilities for global carbon markets and renewable energy solutions. RBC plans to enhance its efforts in the carbon markets through our recent investment in ClearBlue Markets, a global leader in carbon markets project development, analytics and research.
• Expanding our Sustainable Finance advisory team within Business Financial Services to support our approach to sustainability, believing that incorporating ESG insights alongside traditional financial analysis and market perspectives can lead to better outcomes and more opportunities for our clients.
• Expanded an RBC Foundation partnership with ALUS, a national charity that helps farmers and ranchers build nature-based solutions on their land, by investing an additional $1.5 million over three years for initiatives related to carbon sequestration on agricultural lands. This additional funding brings total support from RBC to more than $2.3 million since 2018.

"The climate challenges our society is facing are significant and complex, they require innovation, and, above all, they necessitate that we work together," said Jennifer Livingstone, vice president of Enterprise Climate Strategy for RBC. "We're harnessing the full power of RBC – our ability to convene leaders, share insights, apply solutions and advocate for change."

Learn more about the RBC Climate Action Institute at rbc.com/climate-action-institute.

Learn more about RBC's climate strategy at rbc.com/climate.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 97,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements  

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the "safe harbour" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation with respect to Royal Bank of Canada's (we, us or our) RBC Climate Action Institute.

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our economic, environmental (including climate), social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments, goals, as well as how we will bring together research insights and industry experts to help clients and communities apply climate solutions, will bring together economists, policy analysts and business strategists to help research and advance ideas that can contribute to Canada's climate progress, will work closely with businesses and industry partners to design practical ways to reduce net emissions, and will undertake work that advances a key pillar of RBC's climate strategy. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is presented for the purpose of assisting our stakeholders, including holders of our securities and financial analysts, in understanding our vision, commitments, goals, as well as our economic, environmental (including climate), social and governance-related impacts and objectives, including the ways we intend to address climate-related strategy, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "expectation", "aim", "achieve", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "predict", "intend", "estimate", "commit", "goal", "plan", "strive", "objective", and "project" and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "might", "should", "could" or "would".

By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, and that our objectives, vision, commitments, goals, and economic, environmental, social and governance-related impacts and objectives will not be achieved. Moreover, many of the assumptions, standards, metrics and measurements used in preparing this press release continue to evolve and are based on assumptions believed to be reasonable at the time of preparation, but should not be considered guarantees.

We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.

These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include but are not limited to: the need for active and continuing participation and action of various stakeholders (including governmental and non-governmental organizations, other financial institutions, businesses and individuals), technological advancements, varying decarbonization efforts across economies, the need for thoughtful climate policies around the world, the challenges of balancing emission reduction targets with an orderly and inclusive transition and geopolitical factors that impact global energy needs, our ability to gather and verify data, our ability to successfully implement various initiatives throughout the company under expected time frames, the risk that initiatives will not be completed within a specified period or at all or with the results or outcomes as originally expected or anticipated by RBC, financial market conditions, our business operations, our financial results, condition and objectives, the legal and regulatory environment, and regulatory compliance (which could lead us to being subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings, the potential outcome of which could include regulatory restrictions, penalties and fines), strategic, reputation, competitive, legal and regulatory environment and systemic risks and other risks. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements can be found in the risk sections of our Annual Report for the year ended October 31, 2022 and the Risk management section of our Quarterly Report for the three month period ended January 31, 2023.

We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Except as required by law, none of RBC nor its affiliates undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

SOURCE Royal Bank of Canada

For media inquiries: AJ Goodman, [email protected]