Canada lagging on standardization

Defining criteria around energy transition key to attracting investment

- IAN BICKIS

It would be possible to get around a city if there were no agreed-upon street names, but it would take longer, people would get lost and international travellers might just give the place a pass.

The same could be said of investors trying to navigate where to put the many trillions — with a T — that are needed every year as the world works through the biggest energy transition since humans figured out fire.

Without standardization, there’s a lot of guesswork as to which investments are climate-aligned and which financial players are keeping their climate commitments. It creates greenwashing loopholes big enough to drive trucks full of billions of dollars through.