Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) unveiled a new climate strategy that includes dedicating $10 billion to decarbonize emissions-heavy industries, and ending investments in oil production and exploration by the end of next year. (The Logic)
Talking point: About one per cent of CDPQ’s roughly $390-billion portfolio is invested in oil production and exploration, which the firm plans to divest from. Another two per cent is invested in the pipeline business; it plans to hold those assets but will not buy new ones, said head of climate risk Bertrand Millot, in a technical briefing Tuesday, noting that the oil industry presents “significant risk” to the portfolio. “The climate situation affects everyone, and we can no longer address it with the same methods used a few years ago,” said president and CEO Charles Emond in a press release. CDPQ launched its first climate strategy in 2017, and says it has surpassed many of those targets. Its new plan builds on its predecessor, including ambitions to cut carbon intensity by 60 per cent of its 2017 levels by 2030—up from its first interim goal to cut intensity by 25 per cent by 2025. The firm also plans to grow its green assets to $54 billion by 2025, up from its current $36 billion. It’s one of just two institutional investors in Canada that have set interim goals for net-zero emissions targets by 2050. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan announced interim targets earlier this month, which include cutting emissions intensity by 67 per cent from its 2019 levels by 2030.