Canada’s pension plan sponsors have a fiduciary responsibility to consider climate change in their financial decisions, according to Randy Bauslaugh, counsel for pensions and benefits and executive compensation at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, during a webinar hosted by the Canada Climate Law Initiative and the Canadian Pension & Benefits Institute. “The failure of plan administrators and […]
Manulife Financial Corp. is linking its executive team goals to the company’s climate action plan, including committing to a net-zero focus by reducing emissions operationally, adopting sustainable investing practices and developing solutions that contribute to climate change mitigation. Members of the organization’s executive leadership team already have performance goals linked to diversity, equity and inclusion, employee engagement […]
The majority (86 per cent) of Imperial Oil Ltd. investors voted to defeat a shareholder resolution that the organization adopt a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the vote held during the Calgary-based company’s virtual annual meeting exposes a rift between its parent U.S. giant Exxon Mobil Corp. — which owns 69.6 […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is partnering with the University of Victoria-led Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions to co-develop decision-making tools and frameworks for integrating climate change risk evaluation and climate mitigation opportunities into investment portfolios. “Acting in the best financial interests of our clients requires us to think long-term about the opportunities and […]
We are now in Month 14 of the coronavirus pandemic. For institutional investors like pension plans, this pandemic and its consequences highlight the reality of systemic risk: events like the ongoing pandemic can and do happen and pension plans need to get ready. Because another systemic risk is at our doorstep: climate change. 2020 was one […]
It isn’t just asset managers who are increasingly embracing the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into investment decision-making. An important contributor to “record inflows” into sustainable investing strategies over the past 12 to 18 months is demand from plan members, as well as individual retail investors, says Eric Monteiro, senior vice-president, group retirement […]
Quebec-based pension fund Bâtirente is applauding CIBC for joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials. Through the industry initiative, the bank will publish the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with its loans and investments and consider the adoption of reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement, according to a press release. A shareholder proposal submitted by the […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is raising its environmental, social and governance-related expectations for the publicly-traded companies it invests in. Under its new proxy-voting guidelines, updated every two years, the BCI made several significant changes in relation to diversity and inclusion, climate change and executive compensation. Specifically, the BCI now expects that women will […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is raising its environmental, social and governance-related expectations for the publicly-traded companies it invests in. Under its new proxy-voting guidelines, updated every two years, the BCI made several significant changes in relation to diversity and inclusion, climate change and executive compensation. Specifically, the BCI now expects that women will […]
Institutional investors, regulators and financial standard organizations are calling on Canadian corporations to adopt transparent climate-risk reporting, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report noted corporate directors have the legal and fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their companies in developing strategies to address climate-related financial risks […]