Canadian Pensions and the Climate Crisis: It’s time for pension funds to lead on climate
Join Shift: Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health for a presentation of key insights from Shift's annual Canadian Pension Climate Report Card, released in February 2025.
Runaway global heating and destabilizing planetary systems would threaten our pension funds’ ability to meet their long-term obligations to Canadians. Shift’s report analyses eleven major Canadian pension funds – collectively managing $2.4 trillion in retirement savings – to assess how prepared they are to meet the climate challenge.
This third edition reveals Canada’s pension sector building internal climate expertise, beginning to help portfolio companies decarbonize, and moving towards strengthening fossil fuel exclusions. However, the report also exposes a troubling divergence between leading and lagging institutions – and reveals which of Canada’s pension giants are well-positioned to step up as political headwinds and worsening climate impacts test their resolve.
In this engaging session, we’ll dive into our findings, outline the critical steps pension funds must take on climate, showcase promising examples from Canadian and international funds, and call on Canadian pension managers to take a leadership role on climate.
The systemic risk posed by climate change is an existential threat to pension funds. As changing political tides threaten to hinder climate progress, pension funds must stand firm on their climate commitments and advocate for the policies and regulation that will protect our retirement savings in the face of this threat.
Join us to learn more. Register now.