Statement on CPPIB-owned Wolf Midstream’s NGL North Phase Two project to expand fossil fuel production
Statement from Shift: Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health on CPPIB-owned Wolf Midstream’s NGL North Phase Two project to expand fossil fuel production.
For Immediate Release: July 3, 2024
Toronto, ON | Traditional territories of the Wendat, Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation - With yet another investment in fossil fuel expansion, our national pension manager continues to bet on climate failure and puts Canadians’ retirement security at risk.
Yesterday, a company 99% owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB or CPP Investments) announced a final investment decision of approximately $1 billion to increase fossil fuel production capacity. Wolf Midstream will build the NGL North Phase Two project, significantly increasing the natural gas liquids (NGL) production capacity of the company’s NGL North System (NGL North).
Through its ownership in Wolf Midstream, CPPIB is investing in a business model that relies on increasing greenhouse gas emissions and locking in high risk fossil fuel dependence. This investment is yet another example of CPPIB continuing to finance fossil fuel expansion in obvious contradiction to its net-zero commitment.
“Canada Pension Plan’s net-zero commitments look increasingly like greenwash,” said Adam Scott of Shift: Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health. “Our national pension manager keeps using the savings of Canadians to increase climate pollution at considerable financial and environmental risk.”
Wolf Midstream is inexplicably included in CPPIBs ‘Sustainable Energies Group’, a portfolio grouping that appears to be designed to obscure the significant risks and harms of fossil fuel linked companies held by the fund.
CPPIB cannot continue to pretend it is committed to achieving its net-zero obligations while allocating billions of dollars of Canadians’ savings into the causes of the worsening climate crisis. Recent greenwash-targeting amendments to Canada’s Competition Act are designed to put an end to such public claims to net-zero that ignore the obvious ramifications of investment and business decisions that serve to increase greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the climate crisis.
For more information:
CPPIB’s investments in fossil fuels:
CPPIB estimated fossil fuel investments (to December 31, 2023)
CPPIB Watch: A quarterly update on CPPIB-owned fossil fuel companies (April - June 2024) (June 19, 2024)
CPPIB’s proposed US$6.2-billion acquisition of coal mine and electric utilities lacks credible climate transition plan (May 6, 2024)
Canada Pension Plan marks Earth Day with US$300 million investment in fracking expansion (April 23, 2024)
CPPIB’s Fossil Fuel Companies - January-March 2024 Updates (March 21, 2024)
Industry Capture? CPPIB is not shy about spouting oil industry talking points (February 27, 2024)
Net-zero commitments preclude investment in fossil fuel expansion:
An authoritative November 2022 report from the United Nations’ High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities concluded that “Net zero is entirely incompatible with continued investment in fossil fuels.”
The International Energy Agency said as early as 2021 that a global net-zero by 2050 pathway required no new investment in coal, oil or gas development.
There is scientific consensus that oil and gas production must be rapidly phased out to avert catastrophic climate outcomes.
Contact information for interview requests:
Adam Scott, Executive Director, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health; adamscott@shiftaction.ca; 416-347-3858
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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