This quarter, despite the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's net-zero commitment, CPPIB portfolio company Wolf Midstream announced a final investment decision of $1 billion to increase gas production to power the petrochemical industry; CPPIB used $1.2 billion from our national pension fund to buy Tallgrass Energy, a 16,000-km U.S. pipeline network operator; CPPIB become the co-owner of California Resources Corporation, California’s largest oil and gas producer; and CPPIB-owned company Encino Energy described our national pension manager as “key to the story” of fracking expansion in Ohio. Read the full stories in Shift’s recap.

Canada’s national pension manager, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), claims it’s committed to net zero emissions by 2050. Yet CPPIB has tens of billions of dollars invested in fossil fuel companies that lack credible transition plans and are expanding and prolonging the use of oil and gas– the primary drivers of climate-wrecking emissions. The actions of these companies do not appear to align with CPPIB’s climate commitments, and expose our national retirement savings to unacceptable risks as the climate crisis worsens and the transition away from fossil fuels accelerates.

Here’s what some of the CPPIB’s fossil fuel companies have been up to in the last quarter.

Last week, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) released its Fiscal Year 2024 annual report, growing our national pension portfolio to $632 billion and reporting some progress towards CPPIB’s net-zero by 2050 commitment.

Read on for the climate and energy highlights from CPPIB’s annual report.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) proposed acquisition of Allete could become a smart investment in a major U.S. electric utility player– but not without a clear and credible climate-aligned transition plan for all of Allete’s subsidiaries. We are concerned that CPPIB’s announcement does not include any mention of the actions required to retire Allete’s risky and climate-polluting coal and gas assets in line with CPPIB’s net-zero commitment and global climate goals.

In deciding whether or not to support a shareholder proposal calling for full disclosure of Enbridge’s scope 3 emissions on May 8th, Canada’s largest pension funds need look no further than their own policies, reports or membership in Climate Engagement Canada.

On May 8th, Enbridge is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM), where the shareholders and executives of Canada’s largest fossil fuel pipeline company will gather to make key decisions about the coming year. Shareholders will be voting on a proposal asking the company to “annually disclose all of its scope 3 emissions using accepted definitions and in absolute terms.”

For Canada’s pension sector, voting for the scope 3 emissions proposal at Enbridge’s AGM should be a no-brainer.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments, or CPPIB) marked Earth Day by committing US$300 million to fracking expansion in Ohio. While CPPIB announced nothing about the investment, Houston-based oil and gas company Encino Acquisition Partners LLC (Encino Energy, or EAP), which is 98% owned by CPPIB, announced CPPIB’s commitment to “EAP’s accelerated development of the Utica oil play.”

CPPIB has tens of billions invested in fossil fuel companies that are expanding and prolonging the use of oil and gas. The actions of these companies do not appear to align with the CPPIB’s climate commitments, and expose our national retirement savings to unacceptable risk as the fossil fuel industry faces terminal decline and the energy transition accelerates.

Here’s what some of the CPPIB’s fossil fuel companies have been up to in the last quarter.