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Pension plan invests in fossil fuels

Re: “Pension board studies climate effects,” letter, Jan. 31. Michel Leduc of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board might not have given us all the facts about the fund’s climate risk.

Re: “Pension board studies climate effects,” letter, Jan. 31.

Michel Leduc of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board might not have given us all the facts about the fund’s climate risk. He says: “Our fossil-fuel producer and pipeline exposure was 3.9 per cent.”

Friends of the Earth Canada and the German organization Urgewald published reports last November revealing the board’s investment in coal alone amounts to $12.2 billion, including $267 million in companies proposing or building new coal plants. This is more than 3.5 per cent of the fund.

Perhaps more alarming, the day Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna was in London announcing Canada would lead a campaign to convince all countries to phase out coal plants, Reuters reported CPPIB was preparing a bid to buy Rio Tinto’s coal mines.

There are billions more invested in oil and gas producers, distributors, coal-fired utilities and companies that service the fossil-fuel industry.

The CPPIB owns 97 per cent of Crestone Peak Resources, a Colorado-based fracking company. CPPIB’s managing director and head of natural resources, Avik Dey, is chairman of the board. Since 2016, CPPIB has seen the value of the investment drop from $900 million to $534 million, a 40 per cent loss.

Climate change presents all investors with moral and financial challenges. Is it right to profit from the destruction of the planet?

The CPPIB may be expending resources to study climate change, but it has not changed its investment policies and is putting the future of all Canadians at risk.

John Bennett

Friends of the Earth Canada