The Joint Fund for Pension Plans for Municipal Employees of Montreal plans to withdraw its investments from fossil fuels and 230,000 trees should be planted in the east of the city.
These two announcements took place on Tuesday at the Montreal Climate Summit, attended by the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, the Minister of the Environment of Canada, Steven Guilbeault, and that of Quebec, Benoit Charette.
More than 900 people from the business, philanthropic, union, political, community, environmental and civil society sectors are expected at the Grand Quai du Port on Tuesday and Wednesday, during the event which is in its third edition.
Divestment from fossil fuels
Tuesday morning, Mayor Plante announced that the City of Montreal is beginning a collaboration with the Joint Fund for Municipal Employees’ Retirement Plans, in order to repatriate to Montreal almost all of the management of its investments, valued at $10 billion.
Currently, only 23% of these assets are managed locally, according to the City.
This collaboration aims, ultimately, to divest from fossil fuels and “benefit the entire financial ecosystem of Montreal,” according to the Plante administration.
“This commitment is a first concrete step and sends a strong signal to other cities, governments and public pension funds to strengthen the green economy,” declared Mayor Plante.
The president of the C40, which brings together major cities around the world committed to the ecological transition, welcomed the initiative.
“Montreal joins other pioneering C40 cities that are using every tool at their disposal to ensure that funding goes to the green economy and away from industries that pollute our planet and harm our communities,” said Mark Watt in a press release.
The mayor of Montreal is vice-president of the C40 network.
More than 230,000 trees in eastern Montreal
Ottawa and Montreal also announced the planting of 230,000 trees and 57,000 shrubs in the east of the city. This project will “strengthen existing natural infrastructure in this sector and provide access to natural environments,” according to a press release from the federal government.
“The more we advance towards our goal of planting 2 billion trees by 2030, the more we increase the capacity of ecosystems to sequester carbon and obviously, when we plant them in an urban environment, it helps us reduce heat islands too,” summarized Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, in an exchange with The Canadian Press.
The minister added “that there are areas that are more disadvantaged in terms of the canopy and that this is certainly the case for the east of Montreal. So, this announcement will allow us to attack several problems at the same time.”
The press release highlights that the federal government could “contribute up to a maximum amount of $27,710,192 in this project under the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (FAAC)” and that the contribution of the City of Montreal “could amount to $40 million, or 60% of the total value of the project.”
According to the federal government, investing in these adaptation measures “will have significant economic benefits later”, because “each dollar invested in adaptation and preparedness for climate-related disasters can return between 13 and 15 dollars in benefits”.
The Montreal Climate Summit aims to “bring out solutions, measure collective progress and share learnings and pitfalls, with a view to accelerating Montreal’s climate transition”.
The summit is organized by the Montreal Climate Partnership, in collaboration with the City of Montreal and other partners.