Today, the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) took a big step towards a credible plan that can put it on track to meet its “net-zero by 2050 or earlier” commitment. IMCO’s new Climate Action Plan underscores growing acknowledgement from Canadian pension managers that investments in fossil fuels must be phased out to protect the global climate and beneficiaries’ retirement security.

The financial sector is making voluntary net-zero commitments, but Canada's financial system continues to make investments that are fuelling the climate crisis. This 'say-do' gap puts our climate, economy, and the savings of everyday Canadians at risk. A new report, Roadmap to a Sustainable Financial System in Canada, shows why regulations are needed now to align Canada's federally-regulated financial flows with its climate goals.

Shift welcomes OPTrust’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 and the pension fund’s recognition of the urgency of the climate crisis, which OPTrust calls “an immediate threat to [its] portfolio that it cannot afford to ignore.” However, OPTrust’s Climate Change Strategy continues to fall well short of a credible climate plan, lacking core elements such as interim targets to reduce emissions and clear goals and expectations for climate engagement of owned companies.

When we introduced Shift’s Climate Pension Quarterly one year ago, we knew we were filling a significant transparency gap. Pension beneficiaries and other stakeholders deserve to know how their retirement savings are being invested -- especially when it comes to pension funds’ risky high-carbon investments. You deserve to know how your pension fund is planning for the climate crisis, and if its investments are in line with its public statements on climate.

At a time when the OTPP has made ambitious goals to align its investment strategy with addressing the climate crisis, it is bizarre that newly-chosen Directors appear to lack the required climate expertise needed to implement the OTPP’s net-zero commitment.

The OTPP continues to demonstrate national leadership in aligning the retirement savings of its members with a safe climate future. But despite its increasingly sophisticated strategy to manage climate-related financial risks, the OTPP is silent on how its massive oil, gas, pipeline and and related infrastructure investments have a credible, science-based pathway pathway to decarbonization.

While BCI is responding to calls from beneficiaries for increased disclosure of how it is handling climate-related risks, the investment manager has minimal investments in climate solutions, remains invested in risky high-carbon assets without credible decarbonization pathways, and continues its futile attempts to engage with fossil fuel companies that are failing on climate action.

The University Pension Plan’s (UPP) newly released Climate Action Plan, including its net-zero emissions by 2040 commitment, has unequivocally established the fund as a climate leader in Canada’s pension sector. It’s clear that the UPP is listening to, learning and acting on the concerns of its members, including those who are experts in climate science, sustainable finance and climate and energy policy.

IMCO is taking the first steps towards building a credible climate plan. It has committed to net-zero emissions across its portfolio by 2050 or sooner, but still needs to set interim targets to reduce the emissions of its portfolio and scale up investments in climate solutions.

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.