By: Patrick DeRochie

Patrick DeRochie is the senior manager of Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health, a charitable project that tracks the fossil fuel investments and climate policies of Canadian pension funds, and mobilizes pension beneficiaries to engage fund managers on the climate crisis.

As Canada experiences a record-shattering summer of deadly extreme weather, it’s worth remembering that our national pension fund has poured much of our retirement savings into the primary cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels.

In doing so, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is also undermining its own purpose: to provide Canadians with retirement security by achieving a maximum rate of return without undue risk of loss. Fossil fuel industries, after all, must be rapidly phased out to ensure a safe climate future.

This summer’s unprecedented heat waves, wildfires and floods have taken an immense toll on communities, workers, wildlife and ecosystems, underscoring the immediacy of the climate emergency for many Canadians.

Scientists are clear that climate change, primarily driven by the production and combustion of fossil fuels, is making this extreme weather more likely and more intense. The economic impacts of climate disruption are already significant, and will only get worse.

That’s why it’s so problematic for CPPIB to continue investing Canada’s retirement fund in the high-risk fossil fuels driving the climate crisis.

CPPIB is the investment manager for the $575-billion Canada Pension Plan, with 21 million Canadians as members. CPPIB has taken some laudable steps to assess and manage climate-related financial risks, committing to net-zero emissions across all scopes by 2050, developing a “decarbonization investment approach,” setting climate-related expectations for portfolio companies, and making significant investments in climate solutions such as renewable energy and electrification.

Yet some of CPPIB’s investment decisions and portfolio companies are doubling down on fossil fuels, which accelerates the climate crisis and creates undue risk for our retirement portfolio. CPPIB has repeatedly refused to disclose an inventory of its holdings in oil, gas, coal and related infrastructure. But in July, 2022, CPPIB said it held a staggering $21.72 billion in fossil fuel producers alone.

CPPIB owns 43.5 per cent of Ireland’s largest offshore gas field, 98 per cent of one of the largest U.S. private oil and gas producers, and 49.9 per cent of Peru’s largest exporter of gas, whose pipelines transport gas extracted in the Amazon rain forest.

Here in Canada, through its 99-per-cent stake in Wolf Midstream, CPPIB owns the Access Pipeline System, which gathers and delivers diluent to flow bitumen through pipelines. These companies are included in CPPIB’s deceptively-named “Sustainable Energies” portfolio.

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