Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews. Image: Government of Alberta Alberta finance officials are reaching out to institutional investors to counter a brewing backlash against the Canadian province’s oilsands industry. The offensive comes as Sweden’s central bank said this week it was dumping Alberta’s bonds as it moves to divest from issuers with high carbon-dioxide emissions. “We are working to ensure that the facts are known and clear about the Canadian energy industry,” Finance Minister Travis Toews said in a telephone interview from Edmonton Thursday. Officials are making the case that environmental, social and governance factors should be “applied fairly and factually” to Alberta and Canadian energy assets, especially when compared to other energy sources such as Russia and the Middle East, Toews said. Central banks, pension funds and other global investors are increasingly factoring climate change into their portfolio calculations. Alberta’s oilsands, the world’s third-largest crude reserves, have been criticized by some as among the most carbon-intensive. Sweden’s Riksbank said on Wednesday it sold debt issued by Alberta and Australian states as it gives more consideration to sustainability. The central bank has about 8% of its foreign exchange reserves in Australian and Canadian debt. Last month, KLP — Norway’s […]
