Climate Change
A renewed urgency
Scientists are unequivocal that the human-caused climate change has and will continue to impact societies world-wide, affecting our collective well-being and in turn, the global financial system and every industry in which OPTrust invests.
The call to action to the global community, including investment organizations such as OPTrust, is clear: we all must work to transition to net zero before 2050, recognizing that the course of action taken between now and 2030 will determine whether the global community can still facilitate this transition to net zero in an orderly way.
This places new imperatives on all of us, as fiduciaries, to identify the risks and opportunities in our portfolios, to be transparent with our stakeholders and members about our efforts to manage climate risks and our own environmental impact and, where possible, to actively contribute to solutions.
OPTrust's approach
In 2021, OPTrust struck a cross-organizational committee called the Climate Response Working Group (CRWG) to lay the groundwork for the renewal of our 2018 Climate Change Action Plan and implement key areas of work under the new strategy. This committee’s work, which received OPTrust’s Annual CEO Award for excellence in December 2021, has advanced a number of workstreams, including:
The CRWG’s advancements build on OPTrust’s long-standing commitment to integrating climate considerations into our investment and engagement strategies. This includes: