Climate Risk Guidelines Threaten Canada’s Pacific Link Pipeline

The Friends of Science Society argues that financial oversight bodies, specifically the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), are relying on obsolete scientific models. In a recent open letter, the group contended that current stress-test scenarios, such as RCP 8.5, have been largely dismissed by the climate modeling community as implausible. They suggest that these frameworks, which link natural disasters directly to carbon emissions, pressure financial institutions to restrict capital for conventional energy projects.

Controversy persists over the data underpinning these mandates. The society pointed to the 2025 retraction of a high-profile study by the journal Nature, which had previously projected massive annual economic losses due to climate change. Critics like climate policy analyst Roger Pielke, Jr. argue that such policies fail to measurably alter extreme weather outcomes, while energy expert Vaclav Smil has cautioned that rapid, total decarbonization remains an undertaking of unprecedented complexity. As the Canadian government pivots toward international carbon trading markets, the friction between federal energy ambitions and institutional climate compliance continues to intensify.