With its Climate Transition Investment Framework, UPP continues to ignore the scientific imperative to phase out fossil fuels. Ongoing failure to name the primary cause of the climate crisis and clearly signal to markets the need for a phase-out of fossil fuels will undermine the important climate leadership UPP is otherwise demonstrating in Canada’s financial sector.

The University Pension Plan’s new Climate Stewardship Framework represents one of the strongest approaches to climate-related engagement and stewardship in the Canadian pension sector, reaffirming UPP’s position as a climate leader. But UPP shies away from taking the necessary and Paris-aligned step of excluding fossil fuels from its portfolio, something that its members, including sustainable finance experts and climate scientists, have demanded since the plan’s inception.

The University Pension Plan’s (UPP) newly released Climate Action Plan, including its net-zero emissions by 2040 commitment, has unequivocally established the fund as a climate leader in Canada’s pension sector. It’s clear that the UPP is listening to, learning and acting on the concerns of its members, including those who are experts in climate science, sustainable finance and climate and energy policy.

100 faculty and staff from Queen’s University, the University of Guelph (UofG) and the University of Toronto (UofT) are calling on the University Pension Plan (UPP) to exclude fossil fuels from its portfolio and adopt an industry-leading climate policy.