Canada Pension Plan opens COP28 by celebrating oil and gas investments
As the scientific imperative to phase out fossil fuels dominates discussions at the global climate conference, CPPIB highlights its growing oil and gas investments.
Photo credit: New York Times, December 5, 2023.
Adam Scott, Director of Shift here. Greetings from COP28 in Dubai, where I’m joining thousands of climate scientists, health advocates, civil society organizations, international institutions and government delegates calling for a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels. The science is clear: limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C requires an immediate halt to fossil fuel expansion and a rapid phase-out of oil, gas and coal.
That’s why I was so disappointed to see the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments, or CPPIB) mark the first day of COP28 with an absurd, tone-deaf, anti-science LinkedIn post celebrating its oil and gas investments and bragging about its portfolio companies increasing fossil fuel production.
For Canada’s national pension fund, mandated to invest in our best long-term interests, this is unacceptable. CPPIB needs to hear from Canadians like you who know that Big Oil’s interests are incompatible with our retirement security in a safe climate future. Leave a comment on CPPIB’s anti-science LinkedIn post.
Photo credit: Screenshot of CPP Investments’ LinkedIn post, November 30, 2023.
The LinkedIn post refers to a speech given by CPPIB CEO John Graham to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last month, where he:
highlighted CPPIB's $6 billion of investments in Alberta's oil and gas industry, including oil, gas, oilfield services providers, coal and pipelines;
falsely called Western Canada home to "some of the most responsibly produced conventional energy in the world," "something every Canadian should be proud of";
said "Canada has the potential to continue to be a global leader through innovation in traditional energy production with initiatives like the Pathways Alliance and significant potential to deliver LNG to global markets."
Photo credit: Screenshot of CPP Investments’ LinkedIn post, November 30, 2023.
I was stunned to see this from CPPIB on the opening day of COP28, when climate scientists are literally begging for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels and avoid planetary catastrophe. CPPIB’s CEO sounds more like the army of Big Oil lobbyists trying to sabotage a global fossil fuel phase-out agreement than a prudent investment manager responsible for the retirement security of 21 million Canadians.
Canadian oil is some of the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive in the world. Expanding Canadian LNG exports rests on shaky economic foundations and would facilitate the development of one of the world’s “carbon bombs”-- which is completely inconsistent with the goals of the Paris agreement that COP28 is meant to implement. And the Pathways Alliance of oil sands companies is increasing fossil fuel production, lobbying to delay and weaken key Canadian climate policies, and promoting dangerous distractions like carbon capture and storage while investing a negligible amount in emissions reductions. Pathways’ greenwashing event at COP28 was disrupted by civil society organizations pushing back against Big Oil’s efforts to prevent a fossil fuel phase-out agreement.
The Calgary speech from CPPIB’s CEO, and accompanying LinkedIn post, also bragged about a CPPIB-owned oil and gas company, Teine Energy, that "in the first nine months of 2023 drilled the third most wells in Canada, behind Cenovus and CNRL," and highlighted CPPIB's ownership of Wolf Midstream, whose pipelines transport fossil gas, carbon dioxide and diluent to facilitate increased oil sands production.
Photo credit: Screenshot of CPP Investments’ LinkedIn post, Slide 4 of 4. November 30, 2023.
It is astounding that CPPIB’s CEO is publicly bragging about drilling oil wells when there is scientific consensus that fossil fuel expansion must immediately stop to avoid climate breakdown. CPPIB is smartly making large and growing investments in climate-aligned investments like renewable energy, but that doesn’t negate the fact that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to prevent dangerous global heating.
As senior researcher at Oslos’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research told the New York Times this week, “Just supporting renewables alone is not going to solve the climate problem. You have to have policies that are ensuring that fossil fuels actually go down. We can’t just cross our fingers and hope.”
CPPIB’s vocal, public advocacy for Canada’s fossil fuel industry could not contrast more starkly with the dire warnings of climate scientists and the urgent global call at COP28 for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels. CPPIB must ask itself whether it’s behaving like a prudent arm’s-length pension manager investing in the best interests of 21 million Canadians, or a cheerleader propping up an oil and gas industry facing inevitable, structural decline.
In solidarity from COP28,
Adam Scott, Director - Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health