Young Canadians sue CPP Investments over climate risks

Four people allege in a lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court on Monday that the Canada Pension Plan’s investment managers breached their duty to invest in their best interests and exposed their contributions to the risk of undue loss through their practices. “I don’t want to sue my pension manager, but I want to retire with a stable pension and a livable future,” Aliya Hirji, 20, one of the four plaintiffs, told a news conference in Toronto.

CPP faces lawsuit over fossil fuel ties

The lawsuit, filed with support from Ecojustice and Goldblatt Partners LLP, claims CPP Investments significantly underestimated the financial impact of climate change and exacerbated its harms by continuing to invest in expanding fossil fuel production.

Karine Peloffy, a lawyer and head of sustainable finance at Ecojustice, said the lawsuit would be a legal test of how funds should respond to climate risks, given their obligations. “This is the first time that future beneficiaries have argued in any court that one of the largest investors breached its obligations to intergenerational equity,” Pelofi said.

Michel Leduc, a spokesman for CPP Investments, said the fund would resolve the matter through the courts if necessary, but that the fund was taking a rigorous approach to include climate risk as one of the many important factors it considers. “Our focus remains firmly on integrating climate-related considerations into our investment activities,” he said.

CPP abandons net zero target but defends approach

It comes after CPP Investments quietly abandoned its 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target earlier this year, but Leduc said the change in wording did not change the fund’s focus on climate change. He said climate risk was one of many risk areas the fund had to manage when investing, with the aim of maximizing long-term investment returns without taking on undue risk.

Leduc said the fund will resist efforts it sees as limiting its ability to meet those obligations. “The action against CPP Investments, and our efforts to maintain the sustainability of the Canada Pension Plan, is action against the retirement security of 22 million Canadians,” Leduc said.

Another plaintiff, Travis Olson, said Monday that he believes the fund, which it will one day rely on to help pay his retirement benefits, failed to meet those obligations in managing its investments.

“My pension manager’s actions are incompatible with the economically stable, climate-safe future that our generation depends on,” Olson, 22, said. “I look forward to the day when our pension managers stop betting against the world our generation will inherit, and until they do so voluntarily we ask the courts to step in and protect our contributions.”

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