Canada is positioning itself for an investment supercycle. Amid geopolitical uncertainty, trade diversification and a renewed focus on economic sovereignty, security and resilience, governments and businesses are working to attract investment into sectors considered critical to Canada's future economy, including energy, mining and metals, transportation infrastructure, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.

In doing so, climate change plays an important part in the economics of the sectors Canada is counting on for growth. From power availability and electrification to critical minerals, industrial decarbonization and physical resilience, climate-related factors can affect revenues, operating costs, capital expenditures and asset values. For investors, understanding those financial effects is part of assessing the risks, opportunities and resilience of an investment.

Attracting capital to Canada is not the same thing as winning it for a specific business, asset or project. Canadian businesses will compete against opportunities in markets where investors may have access to more consistent climate-related financial information. Companies that clearly demonstrate how climate risks and opportunities affect their financial performance and prospects make their investment case easier to evaluate.

Importantly, they do not need to wait for mandatory disclosure requirements to do so. Canada already has the internationally aligned tools for the job, including the Canadian Sustainability Disclosure Standards (CSDS) and its forthcoming Canadian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy.

Putting those tools to work now can help translate climate considerations into the decision-useful financial information investors need.

What investors expect to see

Our work with institutional asset managers, pension funds, banks and other capital providers suggests that climate considerations are increasingly part of investment due diligence. But what makes climate information decision-useful depends on the investment.

For a mining company, it might mean quantifying the capital requirements, energy costs and operating implications of electrification or battery storage. For a data centre developer, it could mean demonstrating access to clean, reliable power and explaining how energy requirements affect long-term economics. For an infrastructure owner, it could mean quantifying physical climate risk exposures and showing how they have been incorporated into engineering standards, maintenance, insurance, capital planning and disaster recovery.

Our review of 2025 TSX 60 climate disclosures finds that many large Canadian companies have established important foundations, including climate governance, risk management, emissions reporting and qualitative scenario analysis.

The opportunity now is showing how climate change could affect financial performance and hedged strategically to protect long-term value.

Getting investment-ready

Capital is global, but disclosure requirements are not.

Recent research from the Institute for Sustainable Finance suggests that climate-related disclosure may already influence cross-border capital allocation, finding that Canadian companies with Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures-aligned disclosure experienced larger increases in non-U.S. institutional ownership following the 2025 tariff shock than otherwise comparable companies without it.

The benefits may extend beyond attracting foreign capital. Greater alignment with international disclosure standards and taxonomies can also support trade diversification by making it easier for Canadian companies to demonstrate their climate-related performance and credentials to diversified customers and trading partners in markets where these frameworks are already established.

A practical checklist for competing for capital

Companies looking to participate in Canada's next investment cycle should consider four practical steps:

Know your audience

Understand what information your prospective investors and lenders need to assess. What information will they need to price the opportunity, approve financing or compare it with alternatives? For example, a project seeking European institutional capital may face different information expectations than one financed primarily by domestic banks.

Use standards investors recognize

Map existing climate information against CSDS to identify gaps. Where relevant, assess whether planned activities could meet emerging Canadian taxonomy criteria and be prepared to substantiate any alignment claims.

Show the numbers behind the climate strategy

Quantify material impacts on capex, opex, revenues, asset lives or other financing needs, and when those effects are expected to occur. For example, what additional capex does electrification require? How could energy prices affect operating margins? What resilience investments are included in the project budget?

Test what could change the investment case

Use scenarios to identify the assumptions that matter most to returns. Test variables such as energy prices, carbon costs, insurance availability, extreme weather, technology shifts or changing customer demand, and show what management would do if conditions change. Does the business have the agility, foresight and financial flexibility to adapt, upgrade, harden, repurpose or retire assets or business lines?

Canada may succeed in attracting global capital, but individual companies, assets and projects still need to win it. Companies that can show investors how climate-related factors affect the economics and resilience of their investment case will be better positioned to secure the capital Canada is working hard to attract.