The board overseeing nearly $800 billion in retirement savings for more than 22 million Canadians is facing new questions about whether fossil fuel industry ties are influencing how it manages climate-related financial risks.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s June 1 appointment of Elizabeth Cannon, a board member and director of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), means a quarter of CPPIB’s board now has direct connections to Canada’s fossil fuel sector — even as the pension manager holds billions of dollars in investments in oil and gas companies, including approximately $2.3 billion CAD in CNRL.
Critics say the appointment highlights broader governance concerns about the growing overlap between the country’s largest pension fund and the fossil fuel industry.
According to Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, Canada’s leading democratic reform and government ethics accountability watchdog group, entities like CPPIB that invest public money should have policies that avoid this overlap.
Conacher says individuals with “ties to any business or organization or association of businesses that may receive the financing or investments” should be prohibited “from being an employee, consultant or board member of the public entity.”
