2024-2025 Annual Report

For those who work in climate action, this year has been quite the ride. Ups and downs. Twists and turns. Some whiplash.

The bad news

We can not underplay the impact climate change had on our planet and on our lives. The burning of fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change, has led to an increase in extreme weather events globally.

We watched in horror as wildfires burned throughout the country, Hurricane Debby struck Québec, flooding hit Ontario, Arctic communities bore the brunt of unusual heatwaves, while Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Alberta all faced severe storms.

These and other severe weather events affected hundreds of thousands of Canadians. In 2024, for the first time in Canadian history, insured damage caused by severe weather events surpassed $8 billion. Smoke from larger and more frequent wildfires exacerbated asthma and other health conditions, and the aftermath of climate-related fires and floods took a significant toll on mental health.

When we most needed our leaders to step up, Argentina withdrew negotiators from COP29 summit and fossil fuel lobbyists attended the climate change conference in Baku.

While we were pleased that the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB) released its first sustainability and climate disclosure standards in December 2024, we were disappointed to see the CSSB included an additional year for the reporting of scope 3 emissions. Effective climate action requires measuring and reducing scope 3 emissions. The CSSB delayed progress by not requiring Canadian entities to disclose their scope 3 emissions until 2028.

To kick off 2025, Canada’s major banks left the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, an initiative of “leading global banks committed to aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

Then in April 2025, the Canadian Securities Administrators announced their decision to indefinitely stop work on sustainability-related disclosure requirements. After more than three years of anticipation, we were deeply disappointed by this major setback for Canada’s progress in corporate climate accountability.

The good news

Through the challenging times, it is even more important to celebrate the wins.

The Government of Canada’s 2025 National Inventory Report shows that action to combat climate change is having an effect: greenhouse gas emissions have dropped to their lowest level in 27 years (excluding pandemic years).

We have witnessed important progress this year and have much to be appreciative of, particularly the hard work of our network and colleagues working to advance climate action.

We came together, we celebrated

We made our voice heard on important policies

Internationally, jurisdictions increasingly moved to mandate and implement voluntary corporate climate-related disclosures. As of December 19, 2024, 31 countries have introduced or are in the process of introducing the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Climate-related Disclosures (IFRS S2), including Canada.

We expanded our reach with new guides for Canadian boards of directors in more sectors, plus Japanese boards of directors

Reflecting on the ride

As we look forward, we see many reasons to be optimistic. Here are a few:

• The majority of Canadians are in favour of climate action.
• Climate policy can and does change very quickly.
• For the first time ever, Canada will host its own climate week. Join us November 24-30, 2025.