Investors for Paris Compliance Says Regulators Must Step In After Voluntary Emissions Failures

A climate advocacy group says attempts to push corporate Canada to reduce emissions have failed to yield the desired results, and it argues that financial market regulators must now step in.

“Editing:Megan Rowling In 2021, amidst a wave of corporate net-zero targets, a campaign group called Investors for Paris Compliance was set up in British Columbia, aiming to use investor pressure to hold Canadian companies to account on their climate promises”

Climate Home News

Renaud Gignac, a senior adviser with Investors for Paris Compliance, said, “We’ve come to the conclusion that the results are limited,” adding that “There are no penalties for non-compliance.”

Climate Home News

The group’s final report highlighted a lack of enforcement and transparency around failing to hit voluntary targets, with Gignac saying, “We’re largely limited to climate risk disclosure requirements.”

Investors for Paris Compliance is shutting down after a half-decade of shareholder activism, and Gignac called for mandatory disclosure of emissions categorized as Scope 3, described as all indirect greenhouse gas emissions in a company’s value chain.

Gignac also pointed to insurance exposure, noting the Insurance Bureau of Canada said 2024 shattered records as Canadian insurers paid out $8.55 billion for severe weather-related losses, topping 2016’s all-time high of $6.2 billion in losses.

Responsible investing is facing a backlash driven by economic and political considerations and regulatory constraints, and Rosalie Vendette of Quinn + Parker said the headwinds affect sustainability, climate, and even broader issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Vendette linked the anti-ESG sentiment to the United States, saying it broadened “since the elections and the arrival of the current U.S. administration but which had started well before,” and she cited laws against ESG factors enacted in 17 U.S. states as early as 2023.

Finance et Investissement

In Tennessee, a lawsuit against BlackRock was filed on the grounds that it “uses aggressive strategies to push controversial ESG objectives into the assets it manages,” and the article says a settlement with undisclosed terms occurred in December 2025 to end the litigation.

Vendette warned that shareholder proposals devoted to promoting ESG themes submitted for debate at this year’s shareholder meeting “has fallen significantly,” and she said “ESG shareholder-proposal filings by ICCR members are at their lowest level in 10 years.”

She also described withdrawals from decarbonization-focused associations, including Invesco, JPMorgan, Mellon Investment, and State Street withdrawing from Climate Action 100+ in 2024, and North American banks withdrawing from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) in 2025.

As politicians in Quebec say they are open to gas pipeline projects in the eastern part of the country to free themselves from energy dependence on the United States, Investors for the Paris Agreement says exporting Canadian natural gas via LNG is likely not economically viable.

“If you have been watching closely at your latest home insurance renewal, you may have noticed that your premium has risen sharply this year, whether or not you were the victim of a claim”

La Presse

Renaud Gignac, an economist and senior advisor at the organization, said the European Union has reduced its demand for natural gas by 18 percent from 2022 to 2024, and he pointed to RePowerEU’s budget of 300 billion euros (more than CAD 470 billion) as part of the shift away from Russian gas.

The report says prospects for new LNG suppliers on European markets seem uncertain, and it notes that in 2023 all Canadian natural gas exports headed to the United States and totaled CAD 13 billion, according to Canada’s Energy Regulator (CER).

On the demand side, the article says Asia accounts for 73.2% of global LNG purchases, while it also cites that India has signed long-term contracts to be largely supplied by Qatar and that Japan and South Korea have chosen to increase nuclear energy production.

The same report warns of oversupply risk, with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis projecting a 40 percent increase in natural gas supply by 2028, and it says the United States estimates it could raise its exports by 152 percent by 2050.