Canada’s big public pension funds are splitting into climate leaders and laggards, advocacy group Shift says in its annual report card. Quebec’s La Caisse earned the benchmark’s first A-range grade, while CPP Investments fell to a D after abandoning its net-zero target and a $130-billion green investment pledge.
‘Totally different directions’
Shift: Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health released its annual ranking of 11 of Canada’s largest public pension funds on Wednesday, and its central finding is divergence. Where funds once improved incrementally and in the same direction, they are now moving apart.
“They’ve gone in totally different directions,” said Shift director Adam Scott. “What we’ve seen in the past is pension funds sort of incrementally improving, some more than others… this year, Canada Pension Plan moved backward quite significantly.”
“The gap between climate leaders and backsliders is no longer a matter of nuance. It’s widened to reveal a fundamental split in how pension managers view their duty to their members,” said Laura McGrath, Shift’s senior manager.
The full grade table
Shift’s 2025 report card graded the funds as follows:
- La Caisse (formerly CDPQ): A−
- University Pension Plan: B+
- IMCO: B
- OMERS: B−
- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan: B−
- HOOPP: C
- OPTrust: C
- BCI: C−
- PSP Investments: C−
- CPP Investments: D
- AIMCo: F
La Caisse, Canada’s second-largest fund manager with $496 billion in assets as of June 30, took the top spot after reaffirming its climate commitments and releasing a five-year climate strategy that includes a goal of $400 billion in climate action investments by 2030. It is pushing the companies it invests in to have credible transition plans. The A− is the first A-range grade any Canadian fund has earned since the benchmark began.
CPPIB’s slide, and a lawsuit
CPP Investments, which manages $777.5 billion on behalf of 22 million Canadians as of Sept. 30, is the report’s outlier. It dropped its net-zero target last year, continues to invest in fossil fuel infrastructure — Shift estimates $7.1 billion committed to new fossil fuel and pipeline assets between October 2024 and September 2025 — and is no longer talking about the $130-billion commitment to green and transition assets it made in 2024.
“CPP is a real outlier this year,” Scott said. The fund previously had a climate investment strategy that is no longer visible. “We don’t know for sure, because they stopped talking about it.”
CPP Investments did not respond to a request for comment on the report. The fund was separately sued last October by four young Canadians who allege it is failing to properly manage climate-related financial risk; in response to the lawsuit, the fund said it remains steadfastly focused on integrating climate-related considerations into investments.
‘Greenhushing’ at the bottom
AIMCo, Alberta’s investment manager, finished last for a second straight year with an F. Shift says its 2024 annual report did not acknowledge climate change and it issued no climate-related financial disclosures in 2024 or 2025.
Shift also flagged a broader retreat it calls “greenhushing” — funds quietly going silent on climate rather than defending their strategies. Ontario Teachers’ has not updated its climate strategy in more than three years, it said, while BCI and PSP lack emissions or climate investment targets beyond 2025 and 2026. Shift says it will tighten its scoring next year: no fund will reach the A range without clearly excluding coal, oil and gas expansion.
