Shift welcomes the release of the Climate Engagement Canada Focus List. Company engagement is an essential part of any credible finance institution’s zero-emissions transition strategy. There are however, some important caveats to engagement which must be considered, especially when it comes to oil and gas companies.

If HOOPP outlines how it will address carbon pollution from heating, demonstrates absolute emissions reductions in its real estate scorecard reports, and aligns investing across its portfolio with a strategy for grid decarbonization, then HOOPP’s real estate assets can be a beacon on the way to a climate-safe future.

New analysis finds 80 Canadian pension managers with 124 different roles at 76 fossil fuel companies, raising critical beneficiary questions about fiduciary duty and pension administrators’ conflicts of interest on climate-related investment decisions. The report from Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health reveals the deep entanglement between the fossil fuel industry and directors, trustees and investment managers at Canada’s largest public pension funds.

Today’s release of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s (PSP Investments, or PSP) first Climate Strategy is a notable step forward in moving the pension fund’s investment strategy towards alignment with protecting the retirement savings of federal employees and averting catastrophic climate change.

The OTPP reduced portfolio emissions intensity by 32% and absolute emissions by 13% between 2019 and 2021. But the $242 billion pension fund continues to have significant problems with transparency and credibility when it comes to reconciling its climate commitments with its investments in high-risk fossil fuels.

HOOPP has lagged its peers on climate, but is finally laying the groundwork needed to catch up. Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health is encouraged to see the fund finally starting to develop and announce pieces of a credible climate strategy.

CPP Investments (CPP) has taken an important step today in recognizing that the long-term success of our national retirement fund is directly linked to addressing the climate crisis. While Shift is relieved to see the CPP finally catch up with its peers in making this essential net-zero commitment, the fund does not yet have a credible plan for achieving it and decarbonizing its significant fossil fuel assets.

100 faculty and staff from Queen’s University, the University of Guelph (UofG) and the University of Toronto (UofT) are calling on the University Pension Plan (UPP) to exclude fossil fuels from its portfolio and adopt an industry-leading climate policy.

Yesterday, OMERS became the fourth Canadian pension manager to commit to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. While we welcome this positive step, OMERS has a long way to go to transition its portfolio onto a zero emissions pathway.

On November 5, Alberta's Finance Minister wrote in the Montreal Gazette that the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's (CDPQ) decision to eliminate oil and gas stocks from its portfolio will affect the return on Quebecers' collective savings. This is strange, to say the least. The Sortons la Caisse du carbone coalition has shown that the Caisse's 50 largest oil and gas stocks have had a negative return in seven of the last ten years.

We are pleased to see IMCO join the growing ranks of global asset owners and managers committing to change their investment strategies to ensure the retirement savings of Ontario public employees are invested in a safe climate future.

Despite its net-zero commitment, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is reportedly considering a US$2 billion investment in Adani Enterprises, a giant Indian conglomerate with new coal mines and power stations planned and under construction.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Canada’s third largest pension, committed in January to net-zero emissions by 2050, and in September set interim targets for getting there, but it wasn’t until this week that the OTPP disclosed crucial details on how exactly it plans to achieve its goals. Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health breaks down the highlights and examines what still needs to be done.

Letters were delivered today to the boards and executive of Canada’s 10 largest pension fund managers requesting information on how the funds are meeting their legal fiduciary obligations to beneficiaries in the face of a worsening global climate crisis.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec’s (CDPQ) move to exclude investments in oil producers from its portfolio by the end of 2022 is a welcome and significant move that improves the CDPQ’s position as a climate leader among Canada’s major financial institutions. It is amazing that it took until 2021 for a Canadian pension fund to finally recognize that protecting our retirement savings from the worsening climate crisis inevitably requires abandoning market exposure to high-risk fossil fuels.