The Caisse de depot et placement du Québec has made a “historic” gesture in the fight against climate change by announcing its exit from investments in oil production, but the institution must do more, pleads the coalition Sortons la Caisse du Québec carbon, which dissects the returns of the Caisse’s assets in fossil fuels in a new report. The grouping of environmental organizations points the finger in particular at the Caisse’s investments in the gas sector.
In its report published on Monday, the coalition analyzes, as it has for several years, the performance of the 50 companies in the oil and gas exploitation sector in which the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) holds its largest stock market investments.
In 2021, for only the second time in a decade, this group of companies forming the Carbon 50 index outperformed the stock market indices with which the Coalition compares it, i.e. the Dow Jones and the MSCI ACWI ex Fossil Fuels in Canadian dollars. The value of the Carbon 50 index jumped 31.4% in 2021, after suffering a loss of 31.6% in 2020 – which was its worst performance since 2011.
“Even with the performance improvements of 2021, it is clear that, overall, we would have been more enriched without fossil fuels”, pleads the sociologist, economist and member of the Institute of environmental sciences of UQAM. , Éric Pineault, who edited the coalition’s report and wrote the preface.
Since 2011, the cumulative return of the Carbone 50 index has shrunk by more than 25%, while the other indices that the coalition analyzes — the CDPQ’s overall equity portfolio, the Dow Jones and the MSCI ACWI ex Fossil Fuels — experienced 100-150% growth over the same period.
From 2011 to 2021, if the amounts of money in the Carbone 50 had been divested to be placed on these other indices, the Caisse would have enabled Quebecers to obtain a return of between $12.1 and $15.1 billion, it stated in the report.
“The divestment of hydrocarbons in favor of other investments, such as in clean energies, seems the only way to protect the environment and have savers,” pleads the coalition.
Efforts highlighted, others demanded
Last September, during the unveiling of its new climate strategy, the Caisse de dépôt announced its intention to completely divest itself of its investments in oil production by the end of 2022, to buy more assets green, in addition to investing 10 billion in the decarbonization of strategic but polluting sectors.
“This momentum, which is a beacon signal for other large investment funds, must continue. Unfortunately, this climate leadership is tarnished by the Caisse’s new investments in gas,” laments Sébastien Collard, author of the report, in a press release.
The coalition Sortons la Caisse de dépôt criticizes the institution’s investments in the gas sector, which it considers “a mistake from an economic and climatic point of view”, and maintains that this type of energy is not an energy of transition “.
The grouping notably points the finger at the Caisse’s majority stake in Énergir, the main natural gas distribution company in Quebec. “Sortons la Caisse du Carbone considers that Énergir’s decarbonization plan does not meet the requirements of science to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The Caisse should therefore sell all its assets in Énergir or demand an immediate adjustment of the climate plan of this company, ”argues Sébastien Collard.
Énergir is not among the companies that make up the Carbone 50 index analyzed by the Coalition, “since [le placement de la Caisse dans l’entreprise] was in the form of bonds rather than shares in the 2020 annual report,” the report said.