Photo: Jacques Nadeau Le Devoir
According to the calculations go Out the Fund’s carbon investments in the oil and gas amounted to $ rather $ 15.8 billion.
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec continues to make “significant progress” in reducing the carbon footprint of its investments, believes the coalition get Out the box of the carbon while claiming that the manager of pension and insurance funds needs to go further to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
In its Report, sustainable investment to 2019 released on Tuesday, the institution indicated that the carbon intensity of its portfolio has decreased from 12% in 2019, for a total of 21 % from 2017. The objective was to reduce by 25 % the carbon footprint of every dollar invested by 2025.
With respect to investments for low carbon, they have gone from $ 18 billion in 2017 to 34 billion at the end of 2019, an increase of 95 %, which allowed the Fund to go beyond its goal of $ 32 billion by the end of 2020.
Among the investments made in the course of the last year, the Caisse has emphasized including a loan to refinance a contract linked to the Barcelona metro, a private placement in Azure Power Global, an indian company of solar energy, and reinvestment in AddÉnergie, which produces charging stations.
“The results for 2019 show that the Caisse must set climate change targets more ambitious, that respects the climate science and that it must be consistent and stop investing in fossil fuels and related infrastructure such as pipelines and gas pipelines,” wrote the coalition to get Out the box of the carbon, which includes, among others, Greenpeace, the David Suzuki Foundation and Recycle ta Caisse.
Investment with ENGIE
The grouping, for example, has deplored the investment made by the Fund with ENGIE at the beginning of 2019, to become co-owner of Transportadora Associada de Gás (TAG), including the 4,500 kilometres of gas pipelines in Brazil make the player number a the transportation of natural gas in the country. The block held by the Fund is 31.5 %, compared to 58.5% for ENGIE.
At the time of announcing the transaction, the two were considering all of their proposal at $8.6 billion US. Asked to explain the transaction, a spokesman for the Fund said that the natural gas is an “energy of transition” and that the institution had continued to follow its plan to reduce its carbon footprint.
The results for 2019 show that the Fund should stop investing in fossil fuels and related infrastructure such as pipelines and gas pipelines
— Coalition get Out the box of the Carbon
December 31, 2019, the net assets of the Fund amounted to 340 billion, the result of a return of 10.4 % during the year. The Report sustainable investment in 2019 does not encrypt that represent its overall investments in the hydrocarbons sector. According to a document filed by the Fund in a parliamentary commission in the spring of 2019, they were, at the end of 2018, in a range of 13.3 to 14.1 billion.
This document outlined the ” investment, direct or indirect, in companies exploiting hydrocarbons and their transport “. According to the calculations go Out the Fund’s carbon investments in the oil and gas amounted to $ rather $ 15.8 billion.
While various groups have called for a complete withdrawal of the Caisse de dépôt of the hydrocarbons sector, its management has already said over the years that it prefers to engage with companies rather than leaving a sector. “Rather than opt-out, we are working to influence our portfolio companies to adopt best practices and strengthening the integration of ESG factors in their business decisions,” he wrote Tuesday in its Report, sustainable investment to 2019.
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