Your pension fund is facing pressure from the federal government to finance so-called major projects “in the national interest”. Several of these projects include risky new fossil fuel infrastructure like liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and pipelines, which carry unacceptable financial risks, climate and environmental consequences, and lack consent from impacted First Nations and Indigenous communities. Your retirement security is on the line. There is a narrow window to ensure pension funds protect your retirement savings from risky bets on fossil fuels.

Shift, represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice, has written to Canada's Office of the Chief Actuary (OCA) warning that the OCA is severely underestimating the systemic financial risks of climate change in its valuation assessments. Shift and Ecojustice are concerned that the OCA is failing to assess the cascading economic and financial impacts of a rapidly warming world. This could have potentially severe consequences for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Public Sector Pension Plan (PSPP), which collectively have more than $1 trillion in retirement savings under management on behalf of millions of Canadians.

PSP’s 2022 Responsible Investment Report, released on November 10th, demonstrates that PSP is responding to calls from beneficiaries for increased disclosure of how it’s handling climate-related risks and putting in place the building blocks to execute its Climate Change Strategy. But a close read of these documents shows that despite clear and laudable signs of progress, PSP is still falling short.

Today’s release of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s (PSP Investments, or PSP) first Climate Strategy is a notable step forward in moving the pension fund’s investment strategy towards alignment with protecting the retirement savings of federal employees and averting catastrophic climate change.