TORONTO \u2014 The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board says it’s moving away from an emissions intensity target for its portfolio to instead focus on climate investment goals.<\/p>\n
In its new 2030 target, the pension board says it’s aiming to double what it calls “climate transition aligned” private investments to $70 billion.<\/p>\n
“Our climate strategy recognizes that the world’s shift to cleaner energy is underway and represents a generational investment opportunity that stands to reshape economies,” said chief executive Jo Taylor in a news release.<\/p>\n
OTPP says it will retire its 2030 goal of a 67 per cent reduction in the carbon emissions intensity of its portfolio compared with a 2019 baseline, along with its goal of a net zero emissions portfolio by 2050.<\/p>\n
While it says it has already reduced its emissions intensity by 50 per cent, it says the portfolio-wide measure is “imperfect” for diverse portfolios, and for the investments in higher-emitting activities needed to decarbonize over the long term.<\/p>\n
OTPP, which manages about $270 billion in assets on behalf of 343,000 members, says it remains committed to supporting the global goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and aims to have its portfolio primarily invested in climate transition aligned assets by then.<\/p>\n
The pension board says emissions intensity remains useful for company comparisons, but not for measuring real-world progress on the energy transition.<\/p>\n
It says its climate strategy is focused on investing in direct climate solutions like emissions reductions and managing risks, as well as working with portfolio companies to advance decarbonization plans.<\/p>\n
“By focusing our ambitions in private investing and active ownership where we have influence, we are positioning the fund to remain resilient and constructively contribute to the transition,” said Taylor.<\/p>\n
OTPP is not the first major Canadian pension plan to drop net-zero targets, following CPP Investments which quietly did the same last year.<\/p>\n
Advocacy group Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health said that while a focus on investing in decarbonization rather than portfolio emissions can make sense, OTPP’s strategy looks to be short-sighted and incomplete.<\/p>\n
The group says OTPP has needlessly watered down its net-zero commitment and that its plan lacks the required ambition and guardrails, representing deep flaws in its strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leadership of major pension funds like Ontario Teachers\u2019 needs to question if they fully understand the gravity of the climate crisis,” said Adam Scott, executive director of Shift, in a news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board says it’s moving away from an emissions intensity target for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,28761,85026,196307,9248,196308,40103,120024,196304,196306,196305],"class_list":{"0":"post-487580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-carbon-emissions","12":"tag-climate-solutions","13":"tag-emissions-intensity","14":"tag-energy-transition","15":"tag-investment-goals","16":"tag-jo-taylor","17":"tag-net-zero-emissions","18":"tag-ontario-teachers39-pension-plan-board","19":"tag-otpp","20":"tag-pension-board"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}