Climate investing gap among Canadian pension giants is widening, campaigners warn
The gap in climate ambitions among Canadian pension funds is widening, with some funds leading the way while others lag behind, according to new research
Canada is facing a growing divide on climate leadership. Led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, who previously served as UN Special Envoy on Climate Finance and as chair of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management, the country’s leadership now appears to be scaling back its climate ambitions. Carney opened 2026 by announcing that he intends to back major new LNG projects, embedding the extraction of new fossil fuels well into 2050.
These scaled-back ambitions are also reflected in the net zero targets of Canadian pension funds, though the picture is increasingly divergent, according to the latest annual Pension Scorecard produced by Canadian campaign group Shift.
Most notably, campaigners are critical of CPPIB, Canada’s largest pension fund, which manages some C$777bn in assets on behalf of 22 million members. Shift highlights that the manager not only abandoned its net zero targets in 2025 but also invested approximately C$7bn in new oil and gas projects over the past year alone.
Shift’s report argues that this apparent U-turn had been years in the making. The pension fund had previously refused to set interim targets and continued investing in fossil fuels. It is currently being taken to court by a group of young members, who argue that its handling of climate-related risks is undermining the security of their retirement income.
Net Zero Investor approached CPPIB, but the fund was not immediately available for comment. The fund has previously stated that it no longer believes interim net zero targets accurately capture the limited control an asset owner has over investee companies’ net zero ambitions.
In contrast, Shift ranks La Caisse, the Quebec-based C$496bn pension fund, much more favourably, demonstrating that climate caution is not inevitable. As of 2025, La Caisse reports that it has reduced portfolio-level emissions by 69% against a 2017 benchmark and pledged to invest C$400bn in climate projects by 2030. It has consequently been awarded an A- rating in Shift’s scorecard.
More broadly, Shift warns that pension fund managers are increasingly prone to “greenhushing,” with major Canadian funds such as Alberta Investment Management Corporation failing to mention climate in their annual reports, and others, including PSP and Ontario Teachers, significantly scaling back on climate-related disclosures.
