Canada Pension Plan Investments has dropped a net-zero by 2050 target for carbon emissions, according to an annual report released on Wednesday, following several Canadian financial institutions that have backtracked on climate commitments.
Several major Canadian banks, including BMO, TD Bank and CIBC, have also backtracked on climate commitments this year, announcing they were leaving a Net-Zero Banking Alliance backed by the United Nations.
IMO this is fine, it’s not really a pension plan’s role to be trying to manipulate what industries are doing well. A pension plan should be primarily focused on getting good long-term returns.
If you want that to not happen then you should focus on policies that make carbon-producing industries not produce good long-term returns in the first place. Then the pension plans and everyone else will stop investing in them as a natural consequence.
If they remain profitable and your pension plan stops investing in them, that just means you’re handing free money to the people who remain willing to invest in them.
Organizations with enough money do have the power to influence humanism. It makes roi in long term if human sustainability actually is winning policy. It is only a mistake to backtrack on financially if raping planet asap is policy to support.