Canada looks abroad for direction on climate reporting requirements

Canada’s regulators are looking at the direction other jurisdictions are going with regard climate reporting for public companies before it updates its own approach.

Speaking with Canadian Lawyer, co-head of Torys' Capital Markets practice Rima Ramchandani said that while it showed some leadership in this area, Canada must “hit the brakes a little bit” and look at what other jurisdictions are doing, especially as Canada and U.S. are so intertwined.

“When the Canadian securities regulators revisit their proposal, it's very likely that they may have to go a little bit further than they did initially,” Rima said.

“They may have to require a little bit more disclosure, be a little bit more prescriptive. But I think the jury's out right now.”

Read: The latest Torys Quarterly cuts through the increasing noise around ESG by returning to the fundamentals of business strategy.

Rima also said greenhouse-gas emissions reporting and scope-3 reporting are causing the most headaches for public companies.

“That reporting is difficult because it relies on issuers to get that data from third parties,” she said.

“And they may not have access to that data. There's also concerns around the reliability and the integrity of that data.”

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