Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the federal government is moving ahead with guidelines around sustainable investing and corporate climate disclosures, but details on the plans are scarce. The move comes as a wide range of investors, asset managers and environmental groups have been pushing the government to roll out such guidelines, also known as green […]
The United Nations’ Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance is marking five years of encouraging institutional investors to implement science-based targets towards curbing greenhouse gas emissions in their portfolios. The network launched with just 12 investment organizations and now counts 88 members across 19 countries. Its members’ collective assets under management have nearly quadrupled since 2019, from […]
Institutional investors are disclosing the environmental impact of their assets through increasingly sophisticated sustainability reports that use the latest disclosure metrics. While some of Canada’s largest pension funds are at the forefront of how to leverage responsible investment mandates and attempt to enact change through leadership in global organizations, the shortcomings of data reporting standards […]
The establishment of a green and transition taxonomy by the federal government will help provide the confidence and transparency that investors need to make decisions that are consistent with Canada’s climate objectives and transition pathways, as well as organization-specific climate action plans or net-zero commitments, said the Pension Investment Association of Canada. In an open letter, […]
It would be possible to get around a city if there were no agreed-upon street names, but it would take longer, people would get lost and international travellers might just give the place a pass. The same could be said of investors trying to navigate where to put the many trillions of dollars that are […]
To reach 2050 net-zero targets, investment volume in U.S. and European clean power markets has to be scaled on an annualized basis from now until 2030, said Daniel Sausmikat, partner of origination and execution at InfraRed Capital Partners, during the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2024 Global Investment Conference held in April. However, progress isn’t going to […]
Driven by the net-zero pledge towards green investments, institutional investors are finding themselves uncomfortably wedged between a rock and a hard place. If they invest exclusively in green assets and earn lower returns than the broader stock market benchmark, as was the case in 2023 for environmental, social and governance funds, they’re criticized for underperforming. […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board earned an eight per cent return last year but significantly underperformed the 19.9 per cent return of its reference portfolio. The lower return can be explained in part by higher volatility in the stock-focused benchmark portfolio compared with the diversified, long-term return focus for the pension fund, says John Graham, the […]
Greenhushing — the withholding of sustainability milestones and other environmental investment goals by institutional investors and investee companies — is a trend that could already be on the way out, says Mary Jane McQuillen, head of environmental, social and governance investing at ClearBridge Investments, a subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments. The effects of greenhushing are expected […]
Vestcor Corp. is reporting a 7.5 per cent return for 2023, despite the challenges of rising inflation and high interest rates. The New Brunswick-based investment organization achieved five- and 10-year annualized returns of 6.27 per cent and 6.73 per cent, respectively. In a press release, Vestcor noted these returns ensure its clients continue meeting their […]