Neyen’s Post

Why do our pension funds continue to invest our savings in an industry that refuses to align its business model with our retirement security in a safe climate future. Pension funds' "engagement" of oil and gas companies has failed. Federal climate policies have finally begun to drive down Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, with overall emissions the lowest in 25 years with the exception of 2020 and 2021 (when the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout resulted in a sharp drop in emissions). But #oilsands emissions continue to climb, increasing by 240% since 2005 and now accounting for nearly one-third of Canada's overall emissions. Oil and gas emissions are expected to increase even more in the years to come, as producers ramp up production to fill new pipelines like the TransMountain Expansion and Coastal GasLink. Nichole Dusyk, a senior policy adviser with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said that “Failure to address rising oil and gas emissions will mean continued failure on Canada’s part to meet its climate targets, with far-reaching consequences for the environment, public health and future generations.” Catherine Abreu, founder of Destination Zero and a member of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body said that if oil and gas sector emissions are allowed to continue rising, it means other sectors of the economy and other regions of the country have a heavier lift ahead of them to meet the country’s emission reduction targets. "We see that one part of the country (Alberta) is now contributing over a third of Canadian emissions, and that is a challenge. But as we have to continue deepening the action we’re taking on climate change … it will be a bigger and bigger question of whether it’s fair and makes sense for us to be attributing this very rapidly shrinking carbon budget for Canada to one sector and one place alone.” “Our concerns are centred about the emissions from the oil and gas sector – and more specifically, around the #oilsands sector in Alberta,” said MC Bouchard, director of oil and gas with the Pembina Institute, a clean-energy think tank. #cdnpoli #onpoli #ableg #sustainablefinance #climaterisk

Canada's pension funds, with the exception of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), continue to invest our savings in fossil fuel companies that are undermining our retirement security in a safe climate future, while claiming that their "engagement" is somehow influencing these companies. Shift endorsed the "Big Oil Reality Check" report, released yesterday by our partners at Oil Change International. The analysis assesses the climate pledges and plans of eight international oil and gas companies – Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Eni, Equinor, and ConocoPhillips – against 10 criteria representing the bare minimum for aligning with the Paris Agreement to limit global heating below 1.5°C. The analysis finds that: -These oil majors fail to align with international agreements to phase out #fossilfuels and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5ºC. Every company is “Grossly Insufficient” or “Insufficient” on a majority of criteria. -Combined, these 8 companies’ current oil and gas extraction plans are consistent with more than 2.4°C of global temperature rise, likely leading to global devastation. -These 8 companies alone are on track to use 30% of our remaining carbon budget to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. -Of the 8 analyzed companies, 6 have explicit goals to increase oil and gas production. Even those without such plans are advancing new fossil fuel projects and selling polluting assets rather than shutting them down, masking their actions as contributing to an energy transition while perpetuating climate pollution. -None of the companies have set comprehensive targets to ensure their total emissions decline rapidly and consistently, starting now. Every company intends to rely on carbon capture and storage (CCS), offsets, and/or other methods that delay and distract from ending fossil fuels, and prolong the health and community safety impacts of fossil fuels.  -All companies fail to meet basic criteria for just transition plans for workers and communities where they operate. -All companies fail to meet basic criteria on upholding human rights. David Tong, report author and Global Industry Campaign Manager at Oil Change International, said: “Our findings reveal how it’s clearer than ever that oil and gas companies – the climate arsonists fueling climate chaos – cannot be trusted to put out the fire. There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition.” Read the full report and analysis here: https://lnkd.in/dSBQqGxY Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) BCI CAAT Pension Plan CPP Investments | Investissements RPC HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) OMERS OPTrust Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan PSP Investments University Pension Plan Ontario

Will Canada's pension funds continue risking our retirement savings on high-risk, uneconomical, ineffective, unscalable carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) schemes that prolong the use of oil, gas and coal? While CCUS may play a small role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in some industries like cement, phasing out #fossilfuels remains critical to fighting climate change. So far, CCUS has served to prop up the fossil fuel industry, with a large majority of captured carbon used to extract more oil and gas. In the process, oil and gas companies continue to expand production while siphoning precious money, labour and time away from the deployment of proven climate solutions. “Carbon capture and storage essentially perpetuates fossil fuel reliance. It’s a distraction and a delay tactic,” says Jennie Stephens, a climate justice researcher at Northeastern University in Boston. According to the Global CCS Institute, a large majority of the CCUS projects in commercial operation as of July 2023 are part of efforts to produce, extract or burn fossil fuels. Nearly three-quarters of the carbon captured through CCUS projects is used to extract more oil. Current and future projects are unlikely to capture carbon in sufficient quantities to make much of a dent on global emissions, with experts calculating that CCUS might provide between 1% and 2.4% of all emissions reductions. Furthermore, CCUS projects rarely meet their stated targets for emissions reduction, while there is significant uncertainty around the amount of underground storage capacity to sequester carbon. And CCUS is extremely expensive, especially compared to mature, proven, scalable technologies whose costs have plummeted, such as wind, solar and energy storage. Given the uncertainties, we can’t continue to burn fossil fuels and release carbon and count on CCUS to clean it up afterward. “We have to do all that we can to reduce emissions in the short to medium term rather than rely on CO2 removals in the longer run," says Sabine Fuss, a climate economist at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change and at Humboldt University of Berlin.

The $113-billion pension fund for Ontario's healthcare workers, HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) continues to invest billions of dollars in the oil and gas companies whose products are causing millions of heat deaths all over the world. Investing in #fossilfuels is bad for our planet, bad for our health, and bad for our pensions. That's why Ontatio health workers are asking HOOPP to stop investing their retirement savings in fossil fuels. A new analysis finds that the emissions from burning oil and gas produced by the world's biggest fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and Chevron, could could cause millions of excess heat deaths before the end of the century. https://lnkd.in/dCawzeRF Report author Sarah Biermann Becker, senior investigator at Global Witness, said: “Every 0.1C of warming will be lethal. Unless the supermajors change course quickly, the death toll will be comparable to some of history’s most brutal wars. We cannot leave it up to them. Governments need to step in, mitigate the impact of extreme heat and urgently ramp up the transition away from fossil fuels.” Intense and deadly heatwaves have hit almost every continent over the past few years, sparking wildfires and causing hundreds of thousands of excess deaths. In Europe, searing heat killed more than 60,000 people in 2022 and heat-related deaths rose by 95% in the US between 2010 and 2022. Heat often hits the poorest and most vulnerable members of each society hardest, with the homeless, those who work outside and the elderly most at risk. Shouro Dasgupta, an environmental economist at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, said action needed to be taken to protect the most vulnerable. “We’re already seeing the impacts of heat stress on workers around the world, particularly on people in outdoor or heavy-duty industries such as agriculture and construction. This will likely get much worse as the planet continues to heat up. We need labour protection policies that are tailored to local needs rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. This isn’t just a moral question – it’s also in the economic interests of employers to provide adequate protection for their workers.” #cdnpoli #onpoli #ONhealth #pensions #sustainablefinance #climaterisk

Canada's pension funds must stop pretending that they will be able to fulfill their mandate if the world fails to avert the worst outcomes of the #climatecrisis. There is no retirement security without a safe climate future to retire into. A new peer-reviewed study finds that average incomes will fall by almost a fifth by 2050, largely due to the escalating climate crisis that will bring more frequent and intense extreme weather and inflict crippling economic damages on every country. Maximilian Kotz, an author of the study, said: “Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with south Asia and Africa being most strongly affected. These are caused by the impact of climate change on various aspects that are relevant for economic growth such as agricultural yields, labour productivity or infrastructure.” The study also looked at the second half of this century, where human actions now can still make a big difference. If business as usual continues, the authors projected average income losses of more than 60% by 2100. But if emissions fall to net zero by mid century, income declines will stabilise by mid century at about 20%. Anders Levermann, the head of complexity science at the Potsdam Institute, said: “It is on us to decide: structural change towards a renewable energy system is needed for our security and will save us money. Staying on the path we are currently on will lead to catastrophic consequences. The temperature of the planet can only be stabilised if we stop burning oil, gas and coal.” #cdnpoli #climatecrisis

#Europe's third largest #pension #fund has sold €2.8bn of its #holdings in #oil groups including Shell, bp and TotalEnergies because they were not doing enough to produce credible plans for the #clean #energy #transition. Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW), which has €238bn in #assets, said the disinvestments were the culmination of a two-year program of active engagement with #oil and #gas #companies. This involved encouraging them to produce “verifiable” transition plans to support the aims of the Paris #climate #agreement to limit global #temperature rises to ideally 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. #Investor worries over the failure of oil groups to move faster to limit global warming have been growing. The decision by PFZW follows a similar move by the The Church of England eight months ago. #Countries around the world agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at the #UN #COP28 #climate summit in December, making this #divestment a timely and significant step. Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW)'s move is a testament to the increasing pressure on #companies to demonstrate their commitment to the Paris climate agreement. The sale of €2.8bn of #oil #holdings is the result of a long-term engagement and a demand for credible transition plans. It's time for #companies to take meaningful action towards a #cleaner and #sustainable #future. Lukanyo Mnyanda | Attracta Mooney Financial Times

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board marked the first day of #COP28 with an absurd, tone-deaf, anti-science social media post celebrating its oil and gas investments and bragging about its portfolio companies increasing fossil fuel production. This is unacceptable for Canada’s national pension fund, which is mandated to invest in our best long-term interests CPPIB’s vocal, public advocacy for Canada’s fossil fuel industry could not contrast more starkly with the dire warnings of climate scientists and the urgent global call at COP28 for an agreement to phase out #fossilfuels. CPPIB must ask itself whether it’s behaving like a prudent arm’s-length pension manager, or a cheerleader propping up an oil and gas industry facing inevitable, structural decline. Read our latest blog from Shift's Director at COP28 in Dubai. #cdnpoli #pensions #sustainablefinance #climaterisk

Some big picture thinking by Adair Turner, the first chair of the Climate Change Committee in the Financial Times today. Turner says he's 'confident' of the technologies to get close to net zero but argues we now need to prove it in practice. ‘I am absolutely confident that we will be able to run systems that are as much as 70 per cent dependent on renewables.' The next six years will be extremely important as the new government seeks to get to net zero, he says. But there will still be a place for gas turbines which will need to run for just 10% of the hours in the year and in future will burn blue hydrogen in a process that captures and stores CO2. #energy #climate #energytransition 👇 https://lnkd.in/eGkHAY6T

In a recent #interview, #Vision #Super Pty., managing a A$14 #billion #portfolio, argues against the effectiveness of excluding #coal #investments as a path to #netzero #emissions. Chief Investment Officer Michael Wyrsch emphasized that such exclusions don't drive real #change towards a low-carbon #economy. Instead, Vision Super advocates for setting emissions #targets and engaging with companies like Whitehaven Coal Ltd. to improve #climate disclosures and policies. This stance places them in a #growing #global #discussion among #investors on the best #strategies to combat climate change. #Great article on #Bloomberg #Green.

"Blacklisting coal won't achieve net zero emissions," - Vision Super Pty., an Australian pension fund. The finance sector is waking up to this reality. Vision Super joins a growing list of global investors reconsidering fossil-fuel restrictions. Chris Hohn of TCI Fund Management and Climate Arc argues that climate investors must engage with the highest-emitting sectors to drive a low-carbon transition effectively. He's right. Why eliminate a resource when abatement coal technologies can abate up to 99% of pollutants? It's time to invest smartly. With coal abatement technologies, we can help coal-consuming and producing nations achieve climate goals, boost economies, and use resources responsibly. https://lnkd.in/eZDmb9fX #coal #investment #Australia