Last year, the Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System embarked on a journey to redefine its risk management strategy, with the process pushing the organization to separate its views on risk into three categories. After becoming the OMERS’ chief risk officer in June 2023, Deb Barnes asked the organization’s board for a mandate to refresh the […]
While the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. supports the goal of net zero by 2050, that doesn’t translate to a hard target for its portfolio, according to Jennifer Coulson (pictured left), the organization’s senior managing director and global head of environmental, social and governance. Speaking in a panel session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2025 […]
Through a series of research papers, investment firm Equiton is working with Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business to explore the sustained cashflows available for institutional investors in Canada’s residential real estate market alongside the impact of climate change. “Do we see any impact on these cashflows moving forward and . . . how […]
The push to make companies detail their exposure to climate change received a boost last week with about 80 women leaders in business and civil society calling on Canadian securities regulators to restart work on mandating climate disclosures. In an open letter organized by Women Leading on Climate, the signatories said they strongly disagree with […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is facing criticism for backing out of a commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Following the release of its fiscal 2025 annual results last week, the investment organization was called out by Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health, which said net-zero commitments aren’t optional. The CPPIB […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is focusing on robust corporate governance, the protection of shareholder rights and effective oversight of environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities as part of its latest proxy voting guidelines. In a press release, Jennifer Coulson, senior managing director and global head of ESG at the BCI, said proxy […]
An advocacy group is calling on Canada’s public pension managers to use their financial heft to more publicly work to reduce climate change as political efforts become less reliable. In a new report, Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health says Canada’s big pension funds need to recognize the power and influence they wield and to […]
The OPSEU Pension Trust has reduced its financed emissions intensity by 11 per cent when compared to 2022, according to the investment organization’s latest climate risk disclosure report. In 2023, the OPTrust extended the scope of its carbon footprint measurement to 70 per cent of its assets, up from 40 per cent in 2022. The […]
The United Nations’ Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance is reporting that 81 of its institutional investor members, representing combined assets under management of US$9.4 trillion, have set intermediate decarbonization targets. In its fourth progress report, the institutional investor association also reported reductions in absolute financed emissions of, on average, at least six per cent annually. The […]
By focusing on biodiversity, institutional investors are helping to tackle the climate crisis, says Jane Ambachtsheer, global head of sustainability at BNP Paribas Asset Management. “When we talk about the biodiversity crisis from an economic perspective, we’re talking about a significant portion of global [gross domestic product], which is reliant on nature to some extent,” she […]