'Monster incentive' for companies to go green, BMO's Barclay says

Bloomberg Markets A lot of investment is needed for Canada's energy sector transition: BMO Capital Markets CEO

The head of Bank of Montreal’s investment banking arm says companies have a lot of opportunities to profit from the shift towards a green economy, thanks to government sustainability incentives.

BMO Capital Markets CEO Daniel Barclay said in a broadcast interview that a switch towards luring companies into fighting climate change by offering them benefits instead of penalizing them for not doing enough is the most exciting development that’s happened in the green economy transition in the last two years.

“[CEOs are] seeing this as a great opportunity to build their companies, to build the economy, to build the future together,” Barclay said. “When you move to a system which is based on incentives and think ‘I can run my company cheaper if I run it more sustainably,’ then I generate better cash flow, I generate better earnings, I generate -- if it’s a public company -- a better stock price. You actually got a monster incentive today to be green and make transition happen.”

Barclay said that though the transition is at an early stage, and much more investment is still needed, the eventual shift will trigger a major move to new solutions.

“You think about the innovation of the North American economy, the innovation of technology, the innovation of new companies, new industries that are going to rise out of this energy transition and it might be one of the most exciting times to be in our economies,” he said.