Canada Pension Plan Abandons Net-Zero Commitment

Canada Standard

22-05-2025

The national pension plan that safeguards the retirement savings of 22 million Canadians has become the latest major financial institution to walk from its net-zero climate commitments, and appears to be laying the blame on anti-greenwashing provisions that were added to the federal Competition Act last year.
"Achieving net zero by 2050 remains a widely adopted goal and critical ambition for many countries, companies, and international organizations," the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) says [pdf] in its annual report released yesterday. But the report falls short of reaffirming the net-zero commitment the fund announced in 2022, while steadfastly refusing to abandon its fossil fuel investments.
Instead, CPPIB simply states that "the fulfillment of commitments made by governments, technological progress, fulfillment of corporate targets, changes in consumer and corporate behaviours, and development of global reporting standards and carbon markets will determine the pace of the transition to net zero."
In the FAQ section of its Approach to Sustainability web page, CPPIB explains that "recent legal developments in Canada have introduced new considerations around how net-zero commitments are interpreted," resulting in "increasing pressure to adopt standardized emissions metrics and interim targets, many of which don't reflect the complexity of a global investment portfolio like ours."
Those "rigid milestones could lead to investment decisions that are misaligned with our investment strategy," CPPIB adds. "To avoid that risk-and to remain focused on delivering results, not managing legal uncertainty-we have made a considered decision to no longer maintain a net-zero by 2050 commitment."
The FAQ material appears on a page where Chief Sustainability Officer Richard Manley declares that "companies that effectively anticipate and manage material sustainability-related factors are better positioned to be more profitable and resilient over the long term." A CPPIB spokesperson did not reply to an email requesting further detail on the announcement.
The news from CPPIB echoes the Royal Bank of Canada's late April decision to abandon its $500-billion sustainable finance pledge and stop public disclosures on its updated climate strategy, citing the new anti-greenwashing provisions in the Competition Act. At the time, legal and climate policy experts said the new rules shouldn't be a problem for companies that were telling the truth about their climate performance-or that were working in good faith to meet their commitments, even if they ultimately fell short.
"Walking away from a climate commitment when asked to prove its credibility raises serious concerns about the integrity of that commitment in the first place," Sen. Rosa Galvez (ISG-Quebec), who worked to introduce and pass a Climate-Aligned Finance Act (CAFA) in the last Parliament, said at the time. "Moreover, by abandoning its claims, RBC has demonstrated that the provisions of the Competition Act that intend to address greenwashing are in fact serving their purpose."
In a media release Wednesday, Toronto-based Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health said CPPIB's investment and asset management decisions "have been misaligned with a credible net-zero strategy ever since it first made this commitment in 2022," continuing to invest in fossil fuel expansion "in violation of credible science-based commitments and prudent due diligence" against climate risk.
"Net-zero commitments are not optional," Shift Action wrote. "They have become essential tools to manage risk and maximize long-term financial returns for pension funds. Climate impacts are already reducing global GDP growth, threatening the stability of financial markets and disrupting lives and livelihoods in Canada and around the world," and pointing to a future where "pension funds like CPPIB are unlikely to generate the stable, future returns necessary to pay out their long-term obligations."
Canadians under 40 who are now in the work force "won't be eligible to receive their CPP benefits until after 2050," the release adds. "What kind of a world are Canadians expected to retire into? How would CPPIB be able to sustain benefits in a world of climate breakdown?"
Source: The Energy Mix