The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan is enhancing its climate change strategy to achieve net-zero emissions in its portfolio by 2050.
By 2025, the HOOPP expects 80 per cent of its assets to provide reported emissions. It will also initiate a scope 3 portfolio emissions measurement and exclude new direct investments in private thermal coal and oil exploration and production companies.
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By 2030, the investment organization expects to deploy $23 billion in green investments and to cover 50 per cent of its infrastructure and private equity portfolios credible transition plans. The investment organization is also aiming to reduce its total portfolio’s carbon footprint to 28 tonnes per million dollars invested — compared to a 2021 baseline of 41 tonnes — within that timeframe.
The HOOPP’s plan will focus on several key themes, including: encouraging companies to adopt credible, science-based transition plans that can directly reduce greenhouse gases; increasing capital available for green investments; and prioritizing real-world emissions reductions over the sale of assets.
“As an institutional investor, [the] HOOPP has an important role to play and there are actions that we can take,” said Michael Wissell, chief investment officer at the HOOPP, in a press release. “But we know that we will have a greater impact when we work in collaboration with other investors and directly with the businesses we invest in. Engagement is key.”
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