The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is on track to have a net-zero portfolio by 2050, according to the organization’s latest sustainable investing report.

In 2022, the carbon intensity of the Caisse’s portfolio was 53 per cent lower than its 2017 baseline level, a four per cent improvement over the previous year. As a result, it remained on pace to reach its goals of lowering the portfolio’s overall carbon footprint by 60 per cent of the baseline level by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050.

The Caisse also reached several other environmental milestones it laid out in 2021. It’s now prohibiting investments in new crude oil pipelines and tying executive and staff compensation to the achievement of climate targets. While it failed to meet its goal of divesting from oil-producing companies entirely by the end of 2022, the report found the process is substantially complete.

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The Caisse’s low-carbon asset values rose by $8 billion during 2022, reaching $47 billion. About $12 billion of these investments are domiciled in Quebec. Its holdings in low-carbon intensity sectors also reached $300 billion. This represents more than two-thirds of its total assets, which were valued at $419.8 billion in its latest annual report.

The report also noted several other milestones related to social and governance issues that the Caisse reached last year. Among them, its workforce is now 45 per cent female, up from 39 per cent in 2021. Women representation on the boards of its investee companies also rose dramatically. For the first time, the majority (52 per cent) of boards included at least 30 per cent female board directors, up from 29 per cent last year.

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