September 2021
29Sep

Canada’s second-largest pension fund says first to exit oil assets

Canada’s No. 2 pension fund, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, said Tuesday it will shed all of its oil production assets, valued at C$3.9 billion ($3.08 billion), by the end of 2022 and reduce carbon intensity by 60% by 2030. It said it would be the first institutional investor in Canada to exit oil production assets. As part of a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Montreal-based Caisse plans to hold green assets worth C$54 billion by 2025...

September 29, 2021
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27Sep

UK. The trillions in our pension pots could be key to tackling the climate crisis

By Richard Curtis Someone said something really striking to me the other day – that weather used to be the last thing on the news, but now it’s the first. And it’s not good news. Fire, floods, drought – climate change in terrible and obvious action. It made me think of something I’ve been increasingly obsessed by – unexpectedly – which is pensions. Pensions used to be the last thing on our minds, certainly not something to talk about at...

September 27, 2021
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10Sep

Danish pension sector adopts common climate reporting rules

Denmark’s pensions and insurance lobby announced today it has adopted a set of common climate reporting rules for the sector, as part of the ongoing work in the Nordic country to meet its 2030 emissions reduction goal. The new code – based on the comply-or-explain principle – covers CO2 emissions from investment assets, damage prevention, active ownership and the use of paper in everyday life, according to the announcement from Insurance & Pension Denmark (IPD). It has been devised as part...

September 10, 2021
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August 2021

Students demand that teacher pension fund revoke fossil-fuel investments
30Aug

US. Students demand that teacher pension fund revoke fossil-fuel investments

More than 500 Bay Area high school students gathered outside the San Francisco Federal Building on 7th Street Friday before marching down Market Street to City Hall, calling on the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the state’s pension fund for California public school teachers, to divest its investment holdings in fossil fuel companies. They pointed out that that California’s wildfires demonstrate the need to reduce emissions. “This climate strike has been going on for years, but we’re feeling the effects of climate...

August 30, 2021
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19Aug

US. Climate Change and Benchmarking Risk for Retirement Plans

Institutional Investors Generally  don´t mine coal, make cement or indiscriminately strip large forests. But the companies in which they invest might be engaged in such activities that experts say will prove incompatible with the shift to a lower-carbon world. And, they add, a retirement plan’s holdings of these at-risk investments could have negative consequences for plan participants.   Plan Exposures Climate change risks can affect plans in several ways, says Therese Feng, vice president of research for The Climate Service, a climate...

August 19, 2021
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17Aug

US. Should the Federal Government ‘Green’ Its Pension Plan?

Climate change is posing an existential threat to more than just the planet. In fact, the federal government is concerned that weather-related risks will begin eroding the retirement portfolios of its employees. Read also US. Climate Change and Benchmarking Risk for Retirement Plans Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the board overseeing the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal workers analyze the financial performance of companies in its portfolio, in light of risks related to climate change...

August 17, 2021
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12Aug

Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis

By IPCC This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)1 on the physical science basis of climate change. The report builds upon the 2013 Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and the 2018–2019 IPCC Special Reports2 of the AR6 cycle and incorporates subsequent new evidence from climate science3 . This SPM provides a high-level summary of the understanding of the current state of...

August 12, 2021
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12Aug

Analysis: UN climate report increases urgency for green investment funds

Dire warnings about climate change are a call to action for investors who put their money into helping the environment. But the news also heightens a debate about how to make these strategies effective, financial executives said. Read also Asia vast savings can bring on an ‘age of sustainability’ A U.N climate report on Monday found that global warming is dangerously close to spiraling out of control. Even the most severe carbon emission cuts are unlikely to prevent global warming of...

August 12, 2021
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10Aug

Sustainability, not size, is vital for growth

Research into economic growth has a long and distinguished history, but the recent introduction of sustainability into the debate has given the field a necessary and overdue shake-up. In particular, a report on the economics of biodiversity, commissioned by the UK government and led by Partha Dasgupta of the University of Cambridge, represents a tectonic shift in thinking, rather than only a logical extension of previous growth models. While this may be unsettling to some, it provides a great...

August 10, 2021
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02Aug

UK. Pensions minister: Climate risk must be at the heart of pension decision making

By Guy Opperman Evidence of climate change is undeniable. If all the statistics currently making headlines aren’t enough, the considerable amount of extreme weather witnessed right across the globe, from soaring temperatures in Canada and the Pacific North West, to devastating flash flooding across Europe and China, is further proof of its impact. There are just under three months to go until the UK hosts the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, and we are accelerating...

August 2, 2021
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