OMERS held its annual meeting on April 9, 2025. OMERS members asked pointed questions of their pension fund during OMERS’ annual meeting, reflecting shared concerns about what’s being done with workers’ retirement savings. At a perilous time for critical climate policy, OMERS has a decision to make. Will it continue to pretend that its oil and gas investments have “the best long-term climate positions,” or will it acknowledge that these companies’ ongoing disclosure failures and obstruction of climate policy are slowing down the energy transition that the world desperately needs?

OMERS released its 2024 Annual Report on February 28, 2025. The fund reported encouraging progress toward its climate targets, although it has not signalled that it plans to increase its ambition after meeting these initial goals. For institutional investors with a long-term horizon, this is not the time to take their foot off the accelerator. The world is halfway through the critical decade for climate action. Achieving initial goals should bolster confidence that they can work faster to achieve the emissions reductions that are imperative to safeguard Canadians’ retirement futures.

OMERS took a significant step forward in 2023 by releasing its Climate Action Plan. But the pension manager still has work to do to strengthen its ambition, demonstrate actual emissions reductions in its portfolio and the real economy, improve its climate engagement and disclosure, safeguard significant investments from physical and transition risks, and place exclusions on new fossil fuel investments. Shift looks forward to OMERS improving on these measures and providing further updates to its beneficiaries.

OMERS’ 2022 Annual Report, released February 27, 2023, shows that the pension fund is making progress in its approach to climate-related financial risk, although significantly more action still needs to be taken. Expectations are high for OMERS’ forthcoming Climate Action Plan.

Yesterday, OMERS became the fourth Canadian pension manager to commit to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. While we welcome this positive step, OMERS has a long way to go to transition its portfolio onto a zero emissions pathway.