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Earlier this month, the CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) stood before the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and pledged our national retirement fund’s continued support for the Alberta oil and gas industry.
As the climate crisis ravages Canadian communities from coast to coast to coast, this is a strange thing to hear from our national pension manager. That’s why we published this op-ed in response– to remind CPPIB CEO John Graham that propping up high-risk oil and gas companies is fundamentally incompatible with a livable future for Canadians.
Can you help us spread the word by sharing our op-ed on social media?
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The CPPIB, which manages the $576-billion Canada Pension Plan, is supposed to be a prudent, arms-length investment manager that’s firewalled from politics– not a cheerleader for an oil and gas industry facing inevitable, structural decline.
Oil and gas expansion is incompatible with your retirement security
The financing needs and expansion plans of oil and gas companies are inconsistent with the CPPIB’s mandate to ensure Canadians’ retirement security. Achieving this mandate is dependent on stabilizing global temperatures at relatively safe levels.
Canadians like you and me require a livable planet on which to retire, and climate scientists and energy modelers are clear that limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C and avoiding catastrophic impacts to our ecosystems, economy and financial system requires fossil fuels to be rapidly phased down.
Managing climate risks– or reassuring Big Oil?
Instead of acknowledging this scientific consensus, CPPIB CEO John Graham told Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her allies in the oil and gas industry exactly what they wanted to hear.
Graham highlighted the $6-billion in Alberta oil and gas assets held by the CPPIB– and then pledged to grow those assets. This would be an alarming bet on the world failing to limit global heating to safe levels, putting the Canada Pension Plan at risk from an accelerating energy transition and our retirement security at risk from catastrophic climate change.
Why is the CPPIB’s CEO spreading oil industry propaganda?
Graham also claimed that “some of the most responsibly produced conventional energy in the world is in Western Canada.” This is a fictitious line we expect to hear from oil lobbyists, but shouldn’t hear from a prudent pension manager.
Canadian oil production is among the most carbon-intensive in the world, and Alberta’s oil and gas industry has left behind a toxic legacy of oil sands tailings pollution and unfunded clean-up liabilities.
The CPPIB’s CEO then claimed that the “global investment community has also changed its tune when it comes to fossil fuel divestment.” Yet many investors have already fled the oil and gas sector, acknowledging that the only credible pathway to decarbonizing fossil fuels is to wind down production. Investors with US$41 trillion in global capital already exclude fossil fuels from their portfolios, including giant pension funds in Europe, the United Kingdom, Quebec and the United States.
Remind the CPPIB’s CEO he works for us, not the oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry is facing terminal decline, with billions of dollars of fossil fuel assets set to become stranded if Canada and the world are to achieve their climate targets. The CPPIB is behaving irresponsibly by pretending that Alberta can extract, refine and burn all of its oil and gas assets in the midst of a climate emergency. An honest conversation is needed about supporting Albertan communities and workers through the transition away from fossil fuels.
Help us remind the CPPIB to behave like a prudent, arm’s-length pension manager investing in our best long-term interests– not a cheerleader for the oil and gas industry.
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In solidarity,
Patrick
P.S. The CPPIB needs to hear from more Canadians like you. Please forward this email to three friends and ask them to send a letter to the CPPIB.
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