The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is committing to making its portfolio net zero by 2050, but says it won’t be making any blanket divestments.
The organization said Thursday it plans to achieve the goal while continuing to invest in the whole economy and will push for an economic transition to a lower carbon economy as an active investor. “As a capital provider and partner and with our experience, expertise and financial resources, we recognize the valuable contribution we can make to this challenge,” said John Graham, the CPPIB’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement.
Read: CPPIB targeting high carbon emitters for long-term investments
The CPPIB said it has also committed to increasing its investments in green and transition assets from $67 billion to at least $130 billion by 2030 and aims to be carbon neutral in its operations by the end of fiscal 2023.
Advocacy group Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health said in a release that while the net-zero commitment comes as a relief, Canada’s largest pension fund doesn’t have a credible plan for achieving it.
It said that many companies, in particular those in the fossil fuel industry, don’t have a credible path to zero emissions and that holding those assets in the long term isn’t in the best interest of the CPP’s beneficiaries.
Read: Pension charity criticizing CPPIB’s new environmental investing strategy
The CPPIB said in December that investing is critical to help decarbonize high-emitting sectors like agriculture, chemicals, cement, conventional power, oil and gas, steel and heavy transportation. It said at the time that decarbonizing those sectors was needed for emission reductions as well as to sustain economic growth, stability and a responsible energy transition. In response, Shift Action’s senior manager criticized the strategy.
The strategy contrasts somewhat with the more aggressive stance taken by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada’s second-largest pension fund manager, which committed last September to phase out investments in oil production by the end of 2022 as part of its updated climate strategy.
Read: Caisse promising to divest from oil production by end of 2022
In October, Dutch pension giant ABP said it would sell off all of its fossil fuel assets, worth some €15 billion, because it didn’t see enough opportunity to push those companies towards sustainable practices fast enough. The pension fund said it would instead work to influence companies that use fossil fuels such as utilities, the auto industry and aviation.
The CPPIB also reported Thursday that it ended the last quarter of 2021 with net assets of $550.4 billion, up from $541.5 billion at the end of the previous quarter. It said the $8.9-billion increase in net assets includes $13 billion in net income and $4.1 billion in net CPP outflows.