Statement on the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s new emissions intensity reduction targets
For Immediate Release: September 16, 2021
Statement from Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health on the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s new emissions intensity reduction targets
Toronto, ON - This announcement is a very welcome step forward from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) to ensure the retirement savings of Ontario teachers are being invested in a safe climate future. It’s the strongest climate commitment we’ve seen yet from a Canadian pension fund. These essential near-term plans were missing from the OTPP's January commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
“I finally feel like my pension fund is starting to listen to me and the growing movement of teachers who expect our pension to act now to protect our retirement savings and the climate,” says Lisa Jeffery, a science teacher in Leamington, Ontario. “We are happy to see this major commitment to invest pension capital in profitable solutions to the climate crisis.”
However, OTPP will need to go further if it wants to be considered a global leader on climate. While this announcement describes how the OTPP will invest in solutions to the climate crisis, it makes no mention of how it will eliminate its exposure to the primary cause of it-- namely high-risk fossil fuels. Although the OTPP doesn’t make this clear, a two-thirds reduction in portfolio emissions intensity by 2030 will require significant restrictions on high-carbon investments in oil, gas and coal. A further tightening of these commitments, and a focus on absolute emissions reductions, is required.
“I’m encouraged to see these medium-term targets from the people who manage my retirement savings, but the OTPP still isn’t addressing the elephant in the room-- its multi-billion dollar investments in oil, gas, coal and pipelines,” says Natasha Bartels, a high school teacher in Toronto. “I’ve asked the OTPP again and again to explain how their ongoing and growing investments in fossil fuel companies and infrastructure are aligned with their net-zero emissions commitment, and they’ve failed to provide a credible answer.”
Pension funds that are leading globally on climate, like Sweden’s AP1, have not shied away from stating clearly their intention to screen fossil fuels from their portfolios. Exclusionary screens and phase-out timelines for fossil fuel investments are an essential tool to reduce financial risks while charting a pathway to decarbonization. They are required for OTPP to fully align its investment strategy with climate safety.
We are looking forward to seeing all of the critical details of OTPP’s climate plan this fall, and will be watching for Canada’s other major public pensions to follow suit.
For detailed information on the OTPP’s investments in fossil fuels, please see this backgrounder.
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Contact information:
Adam Scott, Director, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health
416-347-3858
Patrick DeRochie, Senior Manager, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health
416-576-2701
Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health is a charitable initiative that works to protect pensions and the climate by bringing together beneficiaries and their pension funds to engage on the climate crisis.
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