The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is jeopardizing Canadians’ retirement savings, undercutting federal government policy, and making a mockery of one of the country’s few points of climate leadership on the world stage by investing C$141 million in Chinese coal companies, a leading pensions and climate advocate said this week.
“It’s completely offside with Canada’s commitments to the Powering Past Coal Alliance and its domestic goal to retire coal-fired generation,” said Adam Scott, director of Toronto-based Shift Action. “It’s completely offside with all of Canada’s climate commitments. And it’s a red flag for Canadians to be worried about their pension savings.”
That last should be the biggest flag of all for the CPPIB, whose declared mission is to “help provide a foundation upon which 20 million Canadians build their financial security in retirement.”
“If you understand climate change, then you understand that coal is an incredibly high-risk investment in any form,” Scott told The Energy Mix.
“It’s high-risk because it’s the leading cause of the climate crisis, and therefore a key target for elimination in climate policy. It’s ripe for disruption from new technology that is rapidly out-competing coal in electricity markets.”
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