Climate Pension Quarterly - Issue #21
Canada Investment Summit pitches fossil fuels while Canadians pick up after climate disasters
Just a few days from now, 250 high-profile executives who manage nearly $120 trillion in assets will arrive in Canada and join the Prime Minister, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP) at the Canada Investment Summit.
They’ll arrive at the tail end of a summer that forced investors to confront the immediacy of the climate crisis. Wildfires and heat waves engulfed parts of Europe. The Financial Times reported in August that continuing heat stress could cost the most exposed European economies – France, Japan, Italy, Germany and Spain – between 5% and 7% of GDP by 2030.
The investors will sit down to meet in a country grappling with fossil-fuel driven climate impacts. The Elbows Up for Climate campaign – representing nearly 300 mayors and municipal councillors – found that more than 60% of Canadians have been personally affected by climate disasters this year.
While the federal government is ready to shop around as many as 11 oil and gas projects, its own experts are sounding the alarm on climate. The Canada's Changing Climate Report 2026, released last week, warned that our current trajectory will lead to Canadians facing average temperature increases of five degrees by the end of the century – a nightmare scenario far beyond the wildfires, droughts, flash floods and atmospheric rivers we are already experiencing. Under such extreme warming, glaciers in western Canada could lose more than 75 per cent of their ice – a scenario that brings to mind last month’s horrific disaster in Nepal, and the resulting humanitarian and economic chaos.
“The stresses that we see today are only going to get worse because heatwaves like this ten years from now will be over 40C and it will keep going.”
– Sarah Kapnick, global head of climate advisory at JPMorgan Chase, speaking to Bloomberg about June’s heat wave in Europe
Canada Investment Summit
One would hope that the hosts of the Canada Investment Summit would speak knowledgeably to foreign investors about the near-term physical risks of climate change, the existential risk that global heating poses to the financial system, and the imperative to transition away from a fossil fuel-based energy system.
But the three Canadian pension managers closest to the summit are the ones that seem least likely to raise these critical issues. CPPIB and PSP are summit co-hosts, and former prime minister Stephen Harper, now chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), will be the final speaker. CPPIB, PSP and AIMCo have no publicly-disclosed climate strategies, no net-zero commitments, and no current climate-related targets to guide their investment and stewardship decisions. Each appears to have walked away from a climate strategy, with CPPIB having abandoned its net-zero commitment last year; AIMCo having launched a Climate Approach in 2024 and then never mentioning it again; and PSP announcing in June that it had “closed” its 2022–2026 strategy. CPPIB in particular has been a cheerleader for the oil and gas industry, and, as described in this issue of the Quarterly, continues to make bets on fossil fuel expansion.
With the entire summit conducted behind closed doors, the public may never know whether the federal government, CPPIB, PSP and AIMCo are acknowledging the serious financial risks that would accompany investment in projects such as the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline or the liquified “natural” gas (LNG) infrastructure that the government has been trying to coax into existence. As one example, Shift will be watching for updates on the bidding process for stakes in LNG Canada phase 1 – Canada’s only operational LNG export facility. Such bids would free up capital to finance LNG Canada phase 2, and thus be a de facto investment in fossil fuel expansion and serve to prolong fossil fuel dependence (by steering emerging economies towards long-term LNG contracts and away from renewables).
While the summit co-hosts might be ignoring climate, the public will not. Civil society organizations, labour unions and Indigenous groups will counter the summit over three days, challenging the premise that Canadians want foreign investors to buy up public infrastructure and finance data centres, weapons and fossil fuels.
Indigenous rights and pension fund investments
It’s unclear how or if Indigenous nations will be part of the Canada Investment Summit. But the projects being pitched are on Indigenous land, and a number face opposition. For example, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs have spoken out to warn major Canadian pension funds away from investing in projects such as LNG Canada phase 1 or 2, citing Indigenous rights violations, legal liability and financial risk.
Shift’s recent report, Indigenous Rights and Canadian Pension Funds, found that none of Canada’s large pension managers have publicly disclosed investment policies ensuring alignment with Indigenous rights. In response to this gap, over 1,000 people have now written to our national pension manager to demand that CPPIB develop an Indigenous rights policy.
“Respecting First Nations title and rights by embedding free, prior and informed consent into investment decisions is fundamental to responsible investment. We call on the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which impacts all Canadians, and other investors to demonstrate that FPIC is fully integrated into their investment decisions and strategy.”
– Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, quoted in the report’s media release
This issue of the Climate Pension Quarterly catches you up on:
The Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) taking a risk on fossil gas.
Why the proposed “abatement” category would undermine Canada’s sustainable finance taxonomy.
How investors are holding asset managers accountable for Trump-influenced climate rollbacks.
Click into this issue of the Climate Pension Quarterly for the full stories.
– Kevin Philipupillai, Research Lead, Shift
p.s. The latest edition of CPPIB Watch looks into our national pension manager’s investments in gas plants and pipelines to supply the insatiable demand for energy associated with AI. CPPIB is contradicting its own Climate Change Principles, crowding-out renewable energy, and locking-in carbon pollution that increases climate risks to the plan and its members.