The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Royal Bank of Canada says it is stepping up efforts to reduce the climate impact of its lending and investment businesses with a strategy to plow billions of dollars into decarbonization measures and triple its lending for renewable energy. The Globe's Jeffrey Jones writes that the country's largest bank, which has become a lightning rod for criticism from climate activists, also said on Tuesday it is taking a more stringent approach to evaluating the emissions of its oil and gas and power-generation clients, with a view to helping them advance the transition to lower-carbon operations. The new measures are detailed in the bank's 2023 climate report. In it, RBC says global economies must take a dual-track approach to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 while meeting rising energy demand: scaling up low-carbon energy and decarbonizing traditional sources. Plans include increasing lending for renewable energy projects to $15-billion by 2030 from $5-billion last year, and boosting overall low-carbon energy lending to $35-billion in six years. Also, RBC's asset management unit will invest $1-billion by 2030 into climate-focused technologies.