Today, Shift released a new report, Entrenched Interests: Fossil Fuel Ties on Canada’s Pension Boards. The report reveals entanglements between Canadian pension fund boards and the fossil fuel industry which create potential conflicts of interest that can undermine pension funds’ ability to manage climate-related financial risks that threaten the retirement savings of millions of Canadians.

Today’s release of CDPQ’s 2025-2030 Climate Strategy and Transition Financing Framework reveals a credible, comprehensive plan to protect Quebec pensions by achieving net-zero by 2050 and investing in a safe climate future. It affirms that CDPQ’s leadership understands that climate-safe investing is imperative for achieving the fund’s core mandate. The strategy further positions CDPQ as a global climate leader while exposing yawning shortcomings in the climate strategies of other Canadian pension managers, particularly CPPIB.

In this Climate Pension Quarterly, we cover both the good and the bad climate and energy updates in the annual reports from six pension funds, recap recent investment transactions in fossil fuels and renewable energy, bring you news from pension fund portfolio companies, and provide an overview of climate-related votes at recent annual general meetings at Canadian banks.

Last month, Ontario’s University Pension Plan (UPP) released its annual report. UPP members should be re-assured that their pension manager demonstrated a continuing commitment to investing in a safe climate future.UPP continues to share the top spot on Shift’s annual Canadian Pension Climate Report Card for good reason. UPP is perfectly positioned to continue to lead by example: now’s the time for your pension manager to announce that it will be the first of Canada’s large pension funds to end all investments in oil, gas and pipelines.

On May 21, the news broke that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) had quietly abandoned its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. But CPPIB’s abandonment of its net-zero commitment should perhaps come as no surprise– because it was never credible anyway. For years, Shift has meticulously documented how the actions and investment decisions of CPPIB and its privately-owned fossil fuel companies are expanding and prolonging the use of oil and gas. In retrospect, the writing was on the wall.

Canada’s largest pension managers describe their “stewardship” and “engagement” processes as critical elements of their climate plans. However, Shift’s analysis of recent shareholder votes reveals that some pension funds are more willing than others to push publicly traded companies to take meaningful steps to manage climate-related risks and opportunities.

Last week, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) quietly abandoned its 2022 commitment to invest the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) in line with achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The unacceptable abdication of responsibility by CPPIB stands in stark contrast to other Canadian pension giants, six of which released annual reports this year that unambiguously confirmed that they remain committed to net-zero by 2050. Many of CPPIB’s largest pension peers in other countries also remain committed to net-zero.

Today, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board abandoned its commitment to invest the Canada Pension Plan in line with achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, first announced in February 2022. This is an unacceptable abdication of responsibility from the people responsible for managing the collective retirement savings of more than 22 million Canadians.

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.

Investors for Paris Compliance (I4PC) and Shift: Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health (Shift) have filed a shareholder proposal at Brookfield Corporation calling on the company to disclose specific criteria for inclusion of assets within its transition-labeled funds, which value $27.4 billion. A vote will be held at Brookfield’s AGM on June 6. This request follows concerns that the guiding document for the funds is too vague and may permit investments that undermine net-zero commitments, such as LNG.

Against the backdrop of a worsening climate crisis, President Trump is promising to massively expand fossil fuels and launch a devastating trade war on Canadian companies, all while threatening to annex Canada. But apparently the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) doesn’t see this as a problem. As Canada’s survival depends on confronting the climate crisis and diversifying trade away from the U.S., the CEO of CPPIB-backed VoltaGrid is praising Trump’s “drill, baby drill” agenda, donating money to the Republican Party, courting the U.S.’s biggest fossil fuel producers and tech giants, and aggressively expanding gas-fired power to run data centres.

After driving nearly two hours to attend the OTPP AGM on April 10th, retired elementary school teacher and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) member Betty de Groote managed to get to the mic to ask one question about her pension managers’ approach to the climate crisis and investments in fossil fuels. She was deeply disappointed when an OTPP executive dismissed her question, falsely claiming that it had already been answered.

In a shocking abdication of responsibility from Canada’s financial regulators, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the umbrella group representing Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial securities regulators, announced a ‘pause’ today on its work in developing new mandatory climate-related disclosure rules. Mandatory climate-related disclosure rules are essential for financial regulators to meet their mandates to ensure the stability of the financial system and reduce systemic risk.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) 2024 Annual Report, includes an update on the fund’s climate strategy. OTPP continues to make progress on its climate strategy and invest in opportunities that “help to accelerate the broad transition to a low-carbon future.” But the pension manager’s most recent annual report comes a month after OTPP fell out of the top three spots on Shift’s 2024 Canadian Pension Climate Report Card because of its lack of ambition and continued investments in high-risk fossil fuels.

Bay Street needs to impose some discipline on itself and its clients. It needs to immediately stop financing fossil fuel expansion, which is worsening climate-related risk and undermining a stable economy and investment environment. It needs to tell oil and gas companies to get serious about net zero and transitioning to clean energy, or take its financing elsewhere. Read to full op-ed by Shift’s Adam Scott and Investors for Paris Compliance’s Matt Price in the Globe & Mail.

In this Climate Pension Quarterly: in a time of political turmoil, pension funds need to lean into their expertise and influence to lead on climate. January-March 2025 updates from Canadian funds reveal an unsteady mix of climate-aligned activities alongside bets on climate failure.

CPPIB executives disclosed to Canadians at its public meetings that 3.5% of its portfolio – approximately $22.6 billion – is invested in fossil fuels. This is likely an underestimate that omits CPPIB’s significant holdings in fossil fuel private equity, gas and electric utilities and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Following CPPIB’s release of its Second Quarter Fiscal 2025 results in November, Shift calculated that CPPIB has committed at least $3.3 billion of Canadians’ retirement savings in new oil, gas, coal and pipeline assets in 2024.

Today, Shift released its annual Canadian Pension Climate Report Card, an independent benchmark for evaluating the quality, depth and credibility of climate policies for 11 of Canada’s largest pension managers.

This third edition reveals Canada’s pension sector building internal climate expertise, beginning to help portfolio companies decarbonize, and moving towards strengthening fossil fuel exclusions. The report also exposes a troubling divergence between leading and lagging institutions – and reveals which of Canada’s pension giants are well-positioned to step up as political headwinds and worsening climate impacts test their resolve.

The Alberta Energy Regulator has laid nine charges against Imperial Oil after the company leaked an estimated 5.3 million litres of oil sands tailings and toxic chemicals into Alberta waterways from its Kearl oil sands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta. Canada's largest pension funds hold nearly US$300 million in shares in Imperial Oil. Why are our pension funds investing our savings in Imperial Oil, a company that's undermining our retirement security in a safe climate future?