Imogen-Rose Smith, contributing editor at ImpactAlpha, wrote a comment this week, O Canada, how do your pension plans get high ESG scores when you’re up to your neck in tar-sands oil?:
When in doubt, publish a list. It’s a media truism.
The trick
works for not-for-profits too. New America, a Washington D.C. think
tank, put itself on the ESG map with a biennial list of the world’s most
“responsible” global institutional asset owners, the behemoth pension,
insurance and sovereign wealth funds that own the global economy. The
most recent Responsible Asset Allocators Index, or RAAI, came out in November.
The
index suggests progress on responsibility, albeit plodding, among
global asset owners, with the average score reaching 52% in 2021, up
from 48% in 2019 and 44% in 2017.
But let’s be blunt: the list is stupid.
I should be more kind – new year, new me and all that. And I’ve overseen plenty of dumb lists in my time (RIP Trader Monthly).
But
it’s a disservice to the cause to rank Alberta Investment Management
Corp., or AIMCo., in the world’s top dozen allocators for
responsibility. Or to rank Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund higher
than, say, the Illinois University Retirement System.
Such
rankings reflect the broader failures of ESG and sustainability
disclosure by institutional allocators. They are keen, and encouraged,
to tell the world all the good ESG investments they are making. They
offer far less transparency around their negative impacts.
The Responsible Asset Allocators Index,
and others like it, don’t take a 360-degree view of the more than 250
sovereign wealth and government pension plans in its orbit. The rankings
rely on what the world’s largest allocators say they do, rather than
what they actually do. The analysis falls short when it comes to the
real-world impact of the plans’ entire investment portfolios.
Step
forward, AIMCo. Founded in Edmonton in 2008, Alberta Investment
Management manages $95 billion in assets. AIMCo ranks among the top
dozen industry leaders on New America’s responsible allocators list,
with a score of 100.
Canadian pension plans have long been held
up as a model for other institutions, particularly those in the U.S. But
the rating for Alberta’s largest financial institution came as a
surprise to me.
If you know anything about Alberta, besides that
it is cold and dark in winter, it is that it is one of the world’s
major producers of tar sands oil and gas.
The Athabasca oil fields are the fourth-largest oil reserves in the
world – and among the dirtiest. Historically AIMCo’s portfolio has been
overweight to oil and gas, particularly in Alberta. This fossil fuel
conundrum is, of course, an issue more generally for Canada, which wishes to be a global leader on climate change but also to tap its sweet sweet oil and tar sands.
“Let’s face it, for many, many years Alberta was Canada’s leading engine of growth,” AIMCo’s Dale Macmaster told the Canadian press in July. MacMaster said the fund is reducing its energy exposure and increasing its investments in renewables.
But
AIMCo’s continued commitment to building Canada’s oil shale industry is
not mitigated by these green commitments. Indeed, they are undermining
the global effort to transition to a clean energy future.
Oil patch
I
do not question the dedicated work that goes into the responsible
allocators index by Scott Kalb, ex- of the Korea Investment Corp., and
his team of researchers from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
The rankings use 30 variables in their analysis, but the gaps allow
funds to rank highly on the RAAI, even if they are funding activities
hated by environmentalists and many ESG and impact investors, like shale
oil pipelines.
In AIMCo’s case, this includes a partnership with
TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada Corp. builders of the Keystone
XL Pipeline, one of the most controversial shale oil infrastructure
projects in North America. In 2019 AIMCo, a TC Energy shareholder, agreed to acquire 85% of the Northern Courier Pipeline, an inter-Alberta shale pipeline.
The Wall Street Journal, recently published an excellent article by Vipal Monga on the money flowing into Alberta’s oil fields, headlined, “One of the World’s Dirtiest Oil Patches Is Pumping More Than Ever.”
Tar
sands oil production is expected to continue for two decades or more,
Monga writes even though “Major oil companies, under pressure from
investors and environmentalists, are fleeing Canada’s oil sands.
Investment in existing projects has stalled, and banks are refusing to
fund new ones.”
Instead, “Local companies have stepped in to keep
working the existing mines and wells,” Monga writes. “Last year, the
oil sands were on track to deliver more oil than ever.”
The Biden
administration has put something of a wrench in Keystone XL, but it
hasn’t diminished TC Energy’s hunger to tap Alberta’s oil patch.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, beloved during the Trump era for his boyish charm and seeming normalcy, recently
committed more than $3.4 billion to acquire the part of the Keystone XL
pipeline system that taps the Alberta oil patch from TC Energy. The
government says it does not want to be a long time owner; Canadian
pension funds and other investors have expressed interest in the asset.
AIMCo has a controversial 2015 mandate from the Alberta government to invest in local economic growth. The Alberta government stepped in to backstopsome of the firm’s Keystone XL debt.
AIMCo is no stranger
to the oil patch in its backyard. My former boss, Jagdeep Bachher,
joined the University California Regents in 2015 from AIMCo., where he
had been a deputy CIO. At the time, the university’s Regents were
debating divestment from fossil fuels, a decision it ultimately took.
Bachher likes to joke that at AIMCo, he thought investing in oil and gas
was a good thing.
AIMCo’s 2021 responsible investment
report says the fund has $3.2 billion of assets in low or no-carbon and
renewable infrastructure investments. But in AIMCo’s nearly $10 billion
infrastructure portfolio, more than one-quarter of the holdings are in
pipelines and midstream companies, and another quarter are in integrated
utilities. Its major investments include Pungent Energy, a Washington
state utility company that provides natural gas services (yes, blah blah
blah, natural gas is a transition fuel) and Howard Midstream Energy, a
Texas based midstream energy business. AIMCo backed Howard, which owns
and operates natural gas and crude oil pipelines and natural gas
processing plants, refined product storage terminals, to build a major
renewable diesel facility in Port Arthur, Texas.
Working with oil
and gas suppliers is what AIMCo does. The Northern Courier Pipeline
purchase helped TC Energy release $1.5 billion in funding. TC Energy’s
Russ Girling explained that the capital would help the energy company
fund its $30 billion capital program. “We look forward to working with
AIMCo as we realize the benefits of this partnership and financing
opportunity,” Girling said.
And when Razor Energy Corp., a Calgary-based junior oil and gas development company, announced
it was deferring an interest payment on its $50 million credit facility
with AIMCo, it said it “is grateful to be partners with AIMCo and the
continued support as both a major shareholder and senior lender.”
To its credit, and one of the reasons for its high RAAI score, AIMCo does account
for its climate impacts under the recommendations of the Task Force on
Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD. But even the TCFD has
gaps, especially when it comes to Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions that
include the actual use of the fossil fuel pumped and piped by AIMCo’s
portfolio companies (see, “Investors press oil majors to address emissions from products”).
“We
do not take into account emissions that emanate from the use of
companies’ products, also known as Scope 3 emissions,” AIMCo says, “as
data is limited, and invites double counting.”
AIMCo has seen an outflow of talent amid criticism and upheaval. In November 2020 the fund’s then-CIO (error: then-CEO!) announced
plans to step down after an investigation into losses earlier that
year, as COVID shutdowns tanked oil prices, found “unsatisfactory” risk
controls and called for a culture change.
There was a ruckus
when the Conservative Alberta government voted to have AIMCo take over
day-to-day administration of the province’s teacher pension assets. A
November 2021 report
from the Canadian policy research network Parkland Institute called for
a complete governance overhaul of the Alberta sovereign wealth fund.
ESG doubletalk
I am no purist. I know that
the path to the clean-energy transition goes through, and includes, the
fossil fuel industry. I think that issues such as job creation and
supporting energy sector workers and their communities are vital both to
sustainable investing and the success of the clean energy transition.
There is a case for AIMCo’s continued investment in the fossil fuel
sector, in the context of a broader transition away from carbon toward
renewables. And with an understanding of what that means.
That is not the case AIMCo is publicly making.
Rather,
AIMCo, and other institutional investors, use their Responsible
Investment report to highlight their ESG bona fides, and their annual
financial report to provide a snapshot of their investment portfolios.
Neither report gives a true account of the impact a pension plan or
sovereign wealth fund investments is actually having on the, you know,
real world.
I’m not accusing AIMCo of falsifying or misstating
anything. But the incompleteness of AIMCo’s Responsible Investment
reports and related disclosures may have been what tripped up New
America (RAAI says it constantly updates and refines their methodology)
The cognitive dissonance this reporting doublethink can cause is evident in AIMCo’s performance report
published last November, The fund highlights the Global Sovereign
Wealth Fund center, which ranked AIMCo third on its ESG scorecard. And
AIMCo was a finalist for the International Corporate Governance Network
Global Stewardship Award. It’s not only RAAI that thinks AIMCo is just
dandy.
Yet, on the very same page under “investments” the fund
also announced that it had added a new partner to its investment in the
Northern Courier Pipeline, which consists of two 90 km pipelines for
transferring bitumen and its diluted products from Fort Hills to Fort
McMurray, Alberta. The project complements Keystone
XL, which was intended to transport Canada’s shale oil into the U.S.
(The partnership includes economic participation by Indigenous
communities, a huge tick for ESG investing.)
“Alberta has an
enormous amount of carbon beneath its soil. If it gets dug up and
burned, then it will be calculably harder to limit the damage from
climate change,” climate activist Bill McKibben wrote in “We Love You, Alberta—Just Not Your Tar Sands,” in The New Yorker in July.
Burning
the estimated 173 billion barrels of oil in Alberta, by one
calculation, would produce about 112 billion tons of carbon dioxide,
McKibben reported, or 28% of the world’s total remaining carbon budget.
“There’s no way that a country with less than one per cent of the
world’s population can lay claim to more than a quarter of the
atmosphere,” McKibben wrote.
McKibben added that he and other climate activists are subjects of an “anti-Alberta energy inquiry” by a government commission.
G is for governance
I love you too,
Alberta. I once spent a lovely summer cleaning hotel rooms in Banff. The
cleaning part was awful, and I was terrible at it, but Banff was
lovely, as was Lake Louise. I learned about country music, got picked up
by a drunk driver hitchhiking, and was chased by an elk. You have cowboys.
AIMCo
is not the only pension plan or sovereign wealth fund to have such
limited ESG accounting and reporting, especially in large infrastructure
investments. See here
for how an agriculture investment in Maui by the Canadian government
pension plan PSP might not be as ESG, and community, friendly as PSP’s
Responsible Investment reports suggest.
In 2021, PSP entered into a joint venture
with Pretium, a New York-based alternative investment firm, to invest
$700 million into single-family residential housing. U.S. Sen Elizabeth
Warren has been raising awareness
around the impact on affordability of private-equity capital moving
into residential housing. Warren called out Progress Residential LLC, a
property company backed by Pretium.
PSP ranks as a “finalist” on the RAAI, and is generally considered to be a pretty good ESG investor.
Or
take British Columbia Investment Management Corp., which scores as
highly as AIMCo on the RAAI. Like AIMCo. BCI invests in Canadian oil
sand companies. Last May, Reuters reported
that cumulative investment by the country’s top five pension funds,
including BCI, in Canada’s top four oil sands producers had jumped to
$2.4 billion, up 147% from a year earlier. Reuters suggests the pension
funds fancy themselves helping these businesses transition to a clean
energy economy.
“We have a big problem with pension funds saying
we believe in engagement, not divestment, but there’s no sign of this
engagement,” says Adam Scott, director of the Toronto-based pension
activist group Shift. “The very act of owning them (oil sands companies) implies the funds do not support transition.”
ESG
rankings generally look at reporting, not governance. That let’s
investors like the California Public Employee Retirement Fund, or
CalPERS, avoid demerits for governance issues. And the New York Common
Retirement Fund, among the most progressive U.S. institutional investors
when it comes to ESG, does not get criticized by ESG commentators for
having a sole fiduciary, even though such a structure has been seen as a
contributor to corruption.
But this failure to focus on
governance presumably goes some way to explain how the RAAI rates Saudi
Arabia’s Public Investment Fund higher than the Illinois University
Retirement System. The state of Illinois has passed legislation
mandating that all public plans in the state take ESG factors into
consideration when making investment decisions. Saudi Arabia is, well, Saudi Arabia.
Efforts like the Responsible Asset Allocators Index
have encouraged more transparency around ESG investing. The average
RAAI score for ESG integration has risen to 46%, from 32% in 2017. So
progress is being made.
The danger is that these largest and
most influential of funds will spend their time and energy raising their
ESG rankings, rather than actually changing what they do. And that,
unfortunately, is where we still are.
Oh boy, where do I begin?
Let me be nice and praise Ms. Rose-Smith for writing this comment and not holding back.
Even though I totally disagree with her on many points, she does raise some interesting points worth noting.
The main problem is she has an obvious bias and axe to grind with AIMCo primarily but with other Canadian pensions too.
I think the biggest problem I have with this comment is the not-so-vague message: "Oh Canadian pensions, if you're not divesting from oil & gas, then you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!"
Excuse me? What a bunch of hogwash!!
I recently wrote a comment on why political independence is essential for pensions, especially Canadian pensions which need to operate at arm's length from the government to ensure their long-term success.
I stated that I'm concerned with incrementalism slowly creeping into the way our pensions are being run and added:
Don't get me wrong, I'm a stickler for diversity in all its forms, including diversity of views.
I
think it's important to listen to the views of plan members, government
bureaucrats, the public and other stakeholders but at the end of the
day, we can't lose sight of the purpose and mission of these large
pensions, namely, to maximize returns without taking undue risks and make sure they have enough assets to cover their long-dated liabilities.
Period.
That's it, that's all. Pensions aren't there to "save the world" or to
beat global stock market benchmarks every single year, pensions exist
first and foremost to serve their members by ensuring they will all
retire in dignity and security.
Now, don't get me wrong, ESG
investing is here to stay. Our large Canadian pensions see the writing
on the wall and so do their global counterparts.
As the Great Gretzky once famously said: "I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."
Where
is the world heading? I'm not talking about next year or over the next
five years, I'm talking about the next 25 to 50 years.
The world
is decarbonizing fast. You don't need to attend COP26 or any other fancy
conference which big shots like Mark Carney attend, you know the world
is necessarily changing and we are in the midst of a great transition.
"I look forward to transitioning to a clean energy world but the key word is transitioning.
It’s going to take time and it seems some clean energy proponents want
it done today instead of over time. This creates shortages and raises
prices."
And there are a lot of opportunities and risks in the transitioning phase of a long-term secular cycle.
Our
pensions need to have the freedom to operate at arm’s length from
political interference to capture these opportunities and transition
their portfolios slowly but surely over time to reflect the reality of
the world they operate in.
But again, the focus must always be on
taking decisions that are in the best interests of their members, not in
the best interests of their local, provincial (state) or federal
governments.
It's a bit nuanced, there are obviously overlapping interests, but the key point is this, pensions exist to serve their members, not as an extension of the government to promote some agenda, no matter how worthwhile that agenda may be.
To her credit, Ms. Rose-Smith understands transitioning away from oil & gas takes time but the comment is so slanted and basically ridicules the Responsible Asset Allocators Index.
You should read my comment on Canada's most responsible asset allocators to gain a deeper appreciation for the criteria and methodology behind this index and why we should be proud of our large pensions and their responsible investing activities.
My biggest pet peeve with the comment above is it takes bits and pieces of activities at AIMCo and other pensions without appreciating how far they have all come in terms of responsible investing.
She doesn't mention CDPQ, arguably the leader in responsible investing in Canada and the world, or OTPP or CPP Investments for that matter.
Recently, Canada's largest pension fund, CPP Investments hosted the Alberta Energy & Growth
Forum in Calgary featuring a line-up of industry leaders speaking about
investment trends, innovation, and the future of the Canadian energy
industry:
The purpose of the event was twofold: demonstrating the
value CPP Investments provides through our global reach, sophisticated
investment approach and market-leading returns, as well as
communicating our approach to investing as we navigate the global
challenge of climate change.
The agenda covered timely topics
related to the importance and evolution of the Canadian energy
sector. In his opening remarks, President & CEO John Graham touched
on how the sustainability revolution is a full economy-wide transition,
much like the digital revolution that started in the 1990s. He also
spoke about where CPP Investments sees attractive investment
opportunities across the entire energy spectrum, and how we are working
to better anticipate the transition pathways of our investments.
The featured panel focused
on the future of energy. In this session Graham and Chief
Sustainability Officer Deb Orida joined top executives and thought
leaders from the Alberta energy sector. They discussed how an
industry with a strong track record of adaptation can further evolve, as
traditional energy companies increasingly pursue opportunities in
carbon capture, renewables, hydrogen, and technological innovation.
Graham closed the panel with three key takeaways from the discussion:
There is an important, positive shift underway from looking
primarily at the investment risks of climate change to
the financial opportunities of decarbonization;
Collaboration is needed to go beyond general agreement on reducing emissions to action; and that
Alberta and Canada have a great story to tell as they navigate
the energy transition, given their strong track record of
innovation, technology, and experience.
You can read a copy of John Graham’s speech from the Forum here.
I highly recommend you read John Graham’s speech from the Forum here and appreciate the perspective he's elucidating.
In particular, I note this passage:
Finally, I want to share our approach to safeguarding the value of our existing portfolio throughout the
energy evolution. And, how we plan to utilize our knowledge of the energy transition to seek out and
capitalize on the transition potential of companies across the energy spectrum.
The transition landscape remains in its early years. Yet it’s premature of the market to write off entire
sectors like oil and gas before having viable, scalable alternatives in place.
For some sectors the road ahead is clear. For other essential sectors
such as chemicals, steel or agriculture the path is less clear.
Where we see attractive return opportunities, we can provide capital to facilitate the transition of these
vital sectors. These sectors support the net zero economy of the future and need viable, clean
substitutes as demands grow.
That’s why we are deliberately building up the internal competency
to help our investee companies by giving them partnership driven capital and supporting them as they
adopt more sustainable business models and practices.
We’re also actively working with companies in our portfolio that are early in their transition and facing
pressures to become net zero. We’re helping them improve their ESG disclosure, anticipate and
interpret the regulatory or policy landscape and, sharing our institutional knowledge
built through our global investing experience.
We bring the full-weight of the “CPPIB-advantage” by providing global,
cross-asset class data and insights into climate changes’ physical and transition related risks.
We are not walking away, we are rolling up our sleeves.
We are looking for opportunities to support innovation and transformation in power generation and
utilities, many parts of the oil and gas value chain, vehicle transport, cement and construction and
agriculture.
If we seed and build the right businesses today, they will become the unicorns of tomorrow’s low-carbon economy.
I think this passage is critically important,
CPP Investments and other large Canadian pensions aren't walking away,
they're rolling up their sleeves engaging with investee companies and
investing in tomorrow's disruptive innovators.
But in order to do this properly, they need to continue to operate at arm's length from the government.
The Alberta Management
Investment Co. is focusing on all three legs of the environmental,
social and governance stool this year and beyond.
The
government-owned pension investment manager is addressing a range of ESG
issues, from integrating climate risk to building a more diverse
workforce to advancing its risk governance in 2021, according to its
11th annual responsible investment report.
On the environment front, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of its direct
infrastructure assets under management are committed to net zero by
2050. And while climate change is front of mind, the AIMCo’s chief
executive officer noted its roots in an energy-rich province.
“Alberta is the energy hub of Canada and a centre of generation,
production, research, know-how and technology,” said Evan Siddall (pictured), the AIMCo’s new CEO as of July,
in the report. “Our province can offer leadership that promotes
economic development and positions both energy producers and consumers
to succeed in a low-carbon economy. At AIMCo, we intend to invest
additional resources in support of a climate strategy that spans asset classes.”
When
it comes to social factors, the AIMCo has developed a comprehensive
diversity, equity and inclusion action strategy and plan, as well as
issued a formal DEI statement of commitment this year.
“The global
pandemic served as a wake-up call on the materiality of systemic risks
such as climate change, human capital management and diversity, equity
and inclusion,” said Alison Schneider, vice-president of responsible
investment at the AIMCo since late last year,
in the report. “We are working on being more efficient and proactive in
our processes, adding DEI and climate disclosure to every engagement
and in developing ESG analytics such as a scorecard for private equity
to more effectively capture ESG performance trends.”
The
investment organization has also been focusing on governance issues
this year, pointing to the example of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc.
in its report. Tanger had received low support for its advisory vote on
executive compensation, including qualified support from the AIMCo “due
to concerns regarding a disconnect between pay and performance.” The
AIMCo’s engagement with Tanger focused on executive compensation,
including changes the company made to its 2021 program, based on
shareholder feedback.
“Governance is the final leg of the ESG
stool and long a priority among institutional investors,” said Siddall.
“In 2021, we substantially advanced our risk governance. Looking ahead,
we will promote efficiencies in streamlining our decision-making
processes and we will require strong governance among our investee funds
and companies.”
I commend the work Alison Schneider, Vice President, Responsible Investment and her team are doing at AIMCo.
And they don't have pushover clients, especially when it comes to responsible investing.
In fact, at the end of last year, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees called on AIMCo to “quantify the climate risks of its
investments and adopt a path to net zero.”:
The AUPE’s call for action was one of three environmental resolutions
for which the union’s membership voted in favour during its annual
convention held earlier this month, according to a press release.
“Pensions are some of the most hard-fought gains that working people
have ever won,” said James Sullivan, the AUPE’s environmental committee
chair, in the release. “It’s up to us to make sure that those pensions
are stable. Quantifying climate risk would help achieve that.”
In an emailed statement to Benefits Canada,
the AIMCo said it acknowledges that climate change is an urgent and
compelling matter requiring immediate action from all players. “As
Alberta’s investment manager, we recognize the business imperative of
integrating climate change into our investment processes, to both
enhance and protect our clients’ risk-adjusted investment returns over
an extended time horizon.
“We believe that large-scale, long-term
investors like AIMCo have an essential role to play in the coming energy
transition. AIMCo has been measuring its carbon footprint since 2016, a
process that has since advanced to include a portion of all major asset
classes and is committed to engaging with our clients to determine a
climate action plan and go-forward strategy that most closely aligns
with their objectives.”
The statement also pointed to the AIMCo’s recent responsible investing report,
in which the government-owned pension investment manager outlined plans
to address a range of environmental, social and governance issues, from
integrating climate risk to building a more diverse workforce to
advancing its risk governance. “We strive to adopt best-in-class
ESG-integration strategies across asset classes and investment processes
to better identify our ongoing assessment of risk and value,” read the
statement.
Additionally,
the AIMCo said it’s consulting with its pension fund clients, including
the Alberta Public Service Pension Plan and the Local Authorities
Pension Plan to arrive at a climate action plan and go-forward strategy.
Plan members of the Alberta PSPP and the LAPP are members of the AUPE.
“LAPP
Corporation has an ongoing, almost daily dialogue with AIMCo on
responsible investing, with climate change and environmental risk
factors high on the list of investment considerations,” said Chris
Brown, president and chief executive officer of the LAPP Corp., in an
emailed statement to Benefits Canada. “While AIMCo works
continuously to update and integrate its oversight of ESG factors, our
corporation and our sponsor board are refining our policies and
processes as well, to ensure we are providing direction to
AIMCo that reflects the expectations of our sponsors.”
The
AUPE has a seat on the LAPP’s sponsor board, which has identified
climate change as a “primary risk” in the plan’s long-term funding
policy, said Brown. For its part, the LAPP Corp.’s board of directors is
currently working to develop the terms of an updated responsible
investment policy for the LAPP’s funds, which will review best practices
around climate risk measures and carbon capture metrics.
“AIMCo
has announced it will consider viable options to decrease the
portfolio’s emissions trajectory over time,” said Brown. “After
consulting with its clients, it expects to update its plan regarding
implementation of climate-related targets early next year.”
Other
resolutions adopted by the union include a just transition toward net
zero for workers and a proposal for a green, new deal that includes
providing union jobs through an expanded public sector; modernizing
public infrastructure to adapt to climate change; recognizing Indigenous
rights and treaties; and building a society that is ecologically
sustainable and socially fair.
As you can read, AIMCo's clients are very engaged when it comes to responsible investing, providing direction that reflects their expectations.
But AIMCo's clients are not calling for divesting out of oil & gas, that would be insane, akin to asking CDPQ not to invest in Quebec's economy.
As I keep telling my readers, divesting is easy but it's downright foolish, all it does is transfer the risk on to another fund that couldn't give a damn about ESG.
And there's a cost to divesting, a serious cost.
Energy was the top performing sector last year by a lot and there's more room to run higher this year, especially in oil service stocks:
I know, investing in traditional energy isn't cool, buying Tesla shares is cool:
Don't get me started, there's so much nonsense out there in ESG investing, I can write a book on it.
Lastly, I will state where Imogen-Rose Smith's comment struck a chord with me is that Canada's large pensions need to do a better job communicating how their responsible investing activities are making a real world difference.
It's simply not enough to spew out an annual responsible investing report, do a video clip and share with your members and stakeholders real world examples of things you're doing which are making a difference and focus on all three legs of ESG, not just the "E".
Below, Rob West, founder of Thunder Said Energy – an energy consulting firm, understands that the total decarbonization of the energy industry will be fueled by political attitudes around the world over the next few decades. However, West argues that proponents of ESG investing fail to understand that this transition will involve massive investment in fossil fuels and cooperation with villainized oil majors.
He explains his framework for total decarbonization of the energy industry by 2050, and highlights the new technologies and investment vehicles that will be necessary to drive the transition (filmed on October 18, 2019 in New York).
Update: A friend sent me this after reading my comment:
Why Environmentalists Pose a Bigger Obstacle to Effective Climate Policy than Denialists https://t.co/bM7yayJHFm
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