Young Canadians sue CPP Investments over climate risks – MoneySense

The four allege in a lawsuit filed Monday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that the Canada Pension Plan’s investment manager is breaching its duty to invest in their best interests and by its approach exposes their contributions to excessive risk of loss. “I don’t want to sue my pension plan administrator, but I want to retire with a stable pension and a viable future,” 20-year-old Aliya Hirji, one of the four plaintiffs, said at a news conference in Toronto.

CPP is facing a lawsuit over ties to fossil fuels

The lawsuit, filed with the support of Ecojustice and Goldblatt Partners LLP, alleges that CPP Investments drastically underestimates the financial impact of climate change, and is exacerbating its harms by continuing to invest in expanding fossil fuel production.

Karine Peloffy, lawyer and sustainable finance leader at Ecojustice, said the lawsuit will be a legal test on how the fund should address climate risks given its obligations. “It is the first time in any court that future beneficiaries will argue that one of the largest investors is violating its duty of intergenerational equity,” Peloffy said.

CPP Investments spokesman Michel Leduc said the fund will pursue the matter through the courts if necessary, but that it is taking a rigorous approach to integrating climate risks as one of the many material factors it considers. “Our focus remains firmly on integrating climate-related considerations into our investment activities,” he said.

CPP drops net zero target but defends approach

The lawsuit comes after CPP Investments quietly dropped its net-zero target for carbon emissions by 2050 earlier this year, but Leduc said the language change did not change the fund’s focus on climate change. He said climate risks are one of many risk areas the fund must manage as it invests to maximize long-term investment returns without unnecessary risk.

Leduc said the fund will oppose efforts that the fund believes limit its ability to meet these obligations. “An action against CPP Investments and our efforts to preserve the sustainability of the Canada Pension Plan is an action against the retirement security of 22 million Canadians,” Leduc said.

Travis Olson, another plaintiff, said Monday that he does not believe it is meeting these obligations in managing investments that the fund will one day rely on to help pay its retirement benefits.

“My pension administrator’s practices are incompatible with an economically stable, climate-safe future that my generation relies on,” Olson, 22, said. “I look forward to the day when our pension administrator stops betting against the world my generation will inherit, and until they do so voluntarily, we ask the courts to intervene and protect our contributions.”

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