In April 2025, Environmental Defence conducted organizational wide polling with Abacus Data.
Recent data show Canadians want finance to move towards clean energy instead of oil and gas. 7 in 10 (71 per cent) support federal action to help guide financial institutions away from investing in oil and gas companies toward safer, cleaner industries and technologies.Â
 The findings become even more fascinating when we examine demographic data:
- Only 6 per cent of the 18 to 29 year olds surveyed are opposed to the government ensuring financial institutions shift money out of fossil fuels and into clean energy.
- The highest support for these types of solutions come from people who make between $50,000 to $100,000 CAD per year. For reference, the average income in Canada is about $59,400.
- The highest support for these policies come from people who vote for the Liberals, the Greens, or the Bloc Québécois – only 2-5 per cent of their party supporters would oppose these policies. Most of the opposition came from voters for the Conservative party (with 23 per cent opposition ‒ but still 57 per cent support from Conservative party supporters!).
Currently, Bay Street financial institutions finance enough fossil fuel projects to be equivalent to the fifth largest climate polluter in the world, providing more than $1.43 trillion CAD of financing for fossil fuels in 2022. These investments in oil, gas, and coal contribute to climate-driven fires, floods, droughts and heatwaves, which increase the average cost of living for Canadian households by $700 each year. According to our polling, Canadians understand this, and want new rules to modernize our financial system to deal with climate change.
These findings are consistent with what Canadians have said before. In previous surveys, 80 per cent of respondents want mandatory climate transition plans that show how a bank, pension, or insurer will align their portfolio with climate action. 76 per cent of previous survey responses supported rules against financial greenwashing.
The government has a chance to implement climate-aligned financial regulations. Sign here to tell them that you are part of the majority of Canadians who want rules to keep our economy strong and climate safe.
The survey was conducted with 1,200 adult Canadians over the age of 18 from April 14 to 16, 2025. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. The data was weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
