Canadian pensions diverging in climate approach: report

Signage is seen in the reception of CPP Investments' Toronto offices, on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Canada’s big public pension funds are increasingly diverging on their approach to climate action, said an advocacy group in a report out Wednesday.

Shift: Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health says in its annual ranking that Quebec’s La Caisse, the second largest, is showing the best results while CPP Investments, which is the largest and manages the funds of the Canada Pension Plan, is falling behind.

“They’ve gone in totally different directions,” said Shift director Adam Scott in an interview.

La Caisse has led the way among Canadian public pensions by reaffirming its climate commitments and releasing a comprehensive five-year climate strategy that includes a goal of $400 billion in climate action investments by 2030.

CPP Investments, meanwhile, dropped its net-zero target last year, continues to invest in fossil fuel infrastructure and is no longer talking about a $130 billion commitment to green and transition assets that it made in 2024, said Scott.

“CPP is a real outlier this year,” he said.

“What we’ve seen in the past is pension funds sort of incrementally improving, some more than others ... this year, Canada Pension Plan moved backward quite significantly.”

The pension fund also previously had a climate investment strategy that’s no longer visible, while it’s possible the fund has also changed its approach elsewhere on climate change, he said.

“We don’t know for sure, because they stopped talking about it.”

CPP Investments did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

The fund, which had $777.5 billion in assets under management on behalf of 22 million Canadians as of Sept. 30, was separately sued last October over its alleged failure to properly factor in climate risk.

The pension fund said in response to the lawsuit that it remains steadfastly focused on integrating climate-related considerations into investments.

The criticism of the fund comes amid significant geopolitical shifts. The federal government has ramped up its push to expand fossil fuel exports, including through more liquid natural gas and a potential new crude oil pipeline, in a push to create more national and economic security.

Scott said that while U.S. President Donald Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into the energy transition, the global trend toward decarbonization is still underway.

He said it’s important for pensions to look at the longer term, as La Caisse is doing by pushing all the companies it invests in to have a credible transition plan.

“All that means is that if you’re going to invest in anything, you should be clear that it’s positioned to be successful as this transition continues.”

Shift said that other Canadian funds more on the leading side of climate efforts include the University Pension Plan, Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The lowest-ranked of the pensions in the report was the Alberta Investment Management Corp. after its 2024 annual report did not acknowledge climate change and it didn’t issue climate-related financial disclosures in 2024 or 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2026.