CPP Investments Should Divest from Fossil Fuels

Lately I have become involved in a senior’s climate action group called SCAN! https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/

We are building a seniors’ group that is democratic, accountable, equitable and participatory. 

SCAN! believes we need decisive action to:

*rapidly drive down carbon emissions and eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and petrochemicals;

*support those whose jobs have been destroyed by the climate crisis and those whose jobs are  threatened by dramatically reducing carbon emissions;

*begin to restore the ecological damage caused by economic growth; and

*transition from an economy:

        -of accumulation to an economy of sustainability

-of extraction to an economy of stewardship

        -of exploitation and inequality to an economy of fairness. 

One of the initiatives SCAN has undertaken is in the area of Pension Divestment.  Here is a piece that the Chair of our Pension Divestment Working Group penned for the Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/10/04/seniors-are-calling-on-cpp-investments-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels.html

Recently, I wrote to John Graham, President and CEO of CPP Investments.  CPP Investments is a global investment management organisation that invests the assets of the Canada Pension Plan.  Incredibly, they have actually been increasing investments in fossil fuels, especially the tar sands fuelling the climate crisis! CPP Investments should be showing leadership by investing heavily in renewable energy. 

A copy of my letter is below.  

Please consider sending a similar letter.

Thanks,

Bob Wood

-----------------------------

John Graham, President and CEO 
and Heather Munro-Blum, Chairperson, Board of Directors
CPP Investments
One Queen Street East, Suite 2500
Toronto, ON, M5C 2W5
contact@cppib.com

Dear Mr. Graham and Ms. Munro-Blum,

I am a senior and a beneficiary of the Canada Pension Plan. As I have grown older, I’ve experienced the growing strength of climate change. I am concerned with the force and severity of the weather we now experience. I am devastated at the destruction of our forests and wildlife from forest fires. I am horrified at so many needless, climate-related deaths. I have become increasingly aware of how marginalized and Indigenous communities are disproportionally affected. I worry about the world my loved ones will inherit.

A recent report from United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes it clear that we must keep fossil fuels in the ground and move quickly to clean, renewable energy. This same body warned us all in 2018 that “limiting global warming to 1.5⁰C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” Three years later, but with still little action from the world’s leaders on the climate crisis, the head of the UN has declared that humanity is in a Code Red situation. 

I am very concerned at what I have learned about CPP Investments’ fossil fuel holdings:

• nearly 20 per cent of its Canadian holdings in Alberta, in fossil fuels;

• extensive holdings in U.S. fracking companies;

• coal investments in China, in spite of Canada’s international campaign to transition from coal;

• a major offshore natural gas investment in Ireland.

But most distressing is that that CPP Investments has actually been increasing investments in fossil fuels, especially the tar sands. You are fuelling the climate crisis! You should be showing leadership by investing heavily in renewable energy.

As someone who has contributed to the CPP I am, effectively, a shareholder. My children are contributors and are therefore future beneficiaries. We insist that our money be used to help solve the climate crisis, not contribute to it.

I try to make environmentally and socially aware decisions, whether about purchases, or household energy conservation, for example. I therefore want to ensure the investments that fund my retirement don’t further endanger our children, future generations, and our planet.

As you are responsible for the largest pension fund in Canada, you must ensure that the CPP is funded in keeping with a 1.5⁰C degree of warming. It is imperative that you not make new investments in fossil fuels and that you divest from existing ones by 2025. You must invest ambitiously in renewable energy – which is extremely profitable – and other climate solutions. You must respect the sovereignty of Indigenous people and invest in a just transition for energy workers and their communities. You must stop betting on dubious technologies like carbon capture and storage.

Finally, in keeping with your biannual public meeting’s emphasis on transparency, I want improved disclosure, so that contributors and beneficiaries can see how you invest our money. 

I look forward to your response.

Bob Wood

Copy: divestmentproject@seniorsforclimateactionnow.org

Rupert Hotel December 1989*

In light of Toronto City Council further delaying making necessary reforms to rooming house regulations I've updated my poem Rupert Hotel December 1989*.  To learn more see John Michael McGrath's piece at https://www.tvo.org/article/why-does-toronto-exist-and-what-is-it-for

 

         Gordon was sorry
        but it was tough keeping warm
and he’d had some to drink
so setting fire to those papers
on the floor in the middle
of his second-floor room
made some kind of sense.

thestar.com

At the Rupert Hotel,
a three-storey brick walk up
in a licensed city rooming house
off Queen Street East
at Parliament
those with few options
and few dollars could exist,
in a way.

Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control
flames and choking smoke filling the corridors.
        As the fire gained full possession of the hallways
that license pinned to the wall
wasn’t worth the paper
it was printed on
as far as the protection it afforded
those 31 tenants
at the Rupert
that wintry December night.

A sprinkler system might have helped;
could have halted the fire’s progress.
And the tenants could have taken some action
if the alarm system had been operable
or if fire extinguishers 
stored in the basement were reachable.

Seventeen long minutes passed 
before someone called 911.
When firefighters arrived 
the whole building was enveloped.
Flames leapt out of top floor windows.
Fearless firefighters using ladders forced their way
into the searing heat of the second floor.

Later a witness called it
“A Vision out of Hell.”
As the fire raged people screamed, 
cried out for friends.
It took six hours and eighteen crews 
to subdue the blaze.
Thankfully, some tenants were saved 
and many escaped.

For days crews chopped through ice 
and sifted through debris to locate bodies.
They found nine men
and a woman who had returned to the building 
to help a friend.
Donna Marie Cann died, 
as the others had
from heavy smoke inhalation.

Soon an inquest was held.
Recommendations were made
new rules created
regulations established
housing planned.

After a while all was forgotten.
Rules and regulations lapsed,
were ignored or opposed
and the programs ended.

In the city today austerity policies
compel people to rent rooms
in perilous and dangerous buildings.
Many flee the downtown
to illegal suburban homes
where life is cheaper.

*There were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses in the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017 according to the Fire Marshal. At a meeting in October 2012 as City Council delayed once again taking action on licensing, it was reported that there have been 16 fatal rooming housing fires in Toronto between 2010 and 2020 and 14 fatalities were in unlicensed rooming houses.