Greenpeace Canada Challenges Suncor’s Climate Disclosures

On Thursday, Greenpeace announced it had filed a complaint with the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) against Suncor Energy, claiming that Canada’s second-largest oil producer was concealing climate-related risks from its investors.

The complaint states that Suncor omitted a warning in its 2023 climate report that oil sands projects might become stranded assets in a low-carbon emissions scenario.

“Suncor has stopped warning investors of the risk that a significant slice of its oil sands assets will be worthless in a low carbon future,” said senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, Keith Stewart. “Deleting information about stranded assets doesn’t make that risk go away.”

Under the section titled “Expected Impact on Suncor,” the 2022 report states that some producing upstream assets “may be retired before the end of their producing life” in the most ambitious global emissions-reduction scenario.

There is no “Expected Impact on Suncor” section for the low-carbon scenario in the 2023 report. However, a company highlights the significant costs associated with changing the world’s energy system, “where people, companies, infrastructure, and whole industries are made redundant.”

Company disclosures of climate risk remain optional in Canada. In 2022, the Liberal government said companies would have to report climate-related financial risks; however, these regulations have not been finalized yet.

Suncor’s stockholders unanimously agreed to increased transparency in 2016 regarding the company’s risk to climate change.

In response to Greenpeace’s concerns, the ASC stated that it would investigate the issues.

Suncor sold its wind and solar business last year to concentrate on hydrogen and renewable fuels, and it plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 with the help of carbon capture, storage, and efficiency measures.

In an August earnings call, Suncor’s newly appointed CEO, Rich Kruger, said the company had placed “disproportionate emphasis” on the longer-term energy transition.

In light of Suncor’s recent shift in business strategy, Greenpeace has requested that the ASC investigate whether or not the company failed to properly disclose climate-related transition risks associated with the transition and order the company to restore those disclosures.