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UPP recognizes that managing material climate risks is essential to safeguarding members’ assets and ensuring the Plan’s long-term resilience. With global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continuing to rise – despite progress in some regions through strong policies and renewable energy adoption – and the World Meteorological Organization warning that global warming is likely to surpass the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target, the need for strong and coordinated global action remains clear.
Addressing these risks will require decisive action from companies, investors, and governments alike. In this context, we are encouraged by the federal government’s commitments to advancing a made-in-Canada sustainable finance taxonomy and climate-related disclosures, as well as continued industrial carbon pricing and new methane regulations. These measures will help provide market certainty, reduce emissions, and strengthen Canada’s economic competitiveness, and we look forward to working with federal partners to put them into action.
Against this backdrop, we remain focused on advancing our Climate Action Plan (CAP), which targets net-zero portfolio emissions by 2040 or sooner. By emphasizing climate resiliency and emissions reductions, the CAP is designed to help manage financially material climate impacts that will strengthen our ability to deliver secure and stable retirement benefits to our members – both now and in the future.
Over the past year, we have made progress against the CAP’s four pillars: Evaluate, Invest, Engage, and Advocate.
Evaluate
Evaluate climate-related risks, opportunities, and impacts of our current and prospective investments at the total fund and investment mandate levels.
UPP’s Climate Transition Investment Framework (CTIF) was created to support our ability to manage the impacts of climate-related risks on fund performance and capitalize on opportunities for long-term value creation across our portfolio. This framework – which has been fully incorporated into our due diligence process since 2024 – supports our goal of ensuring that new mandates and co-investments align with its minimum standards.
In 2023, UPP began collecting data on actions taken across our public equity investments to manage the shift toward a low-carbon economy. Since then, we have seen positive momentum, with a higher proportion of public equities classified as “Aligning” under the CTIF, meeting criteria such as emissions disclosures, a climate transition plan, science-based targets, and demonstrable progress against them. As a result, our exposure to “Aligning” companies has grown by over 50% since the end of 2023.
2025 also marked the first year we updated our comprehensive assessment of transition risk management across UPP’s existing portfolio using the CTIF, building on our existing baseline evaluation. This work gives us a clearer view of the portfolio’s climate transition alignment, strengthening our ability to integrate climate-related risk and opportunity management into our portfolio monitoring and engagements with investment partners.
Invest
Invest in climate solutions to support the transition to a net-zero world and reduce the GHG intensity of our assets.
UPP aims to commit at least $1.2 billion to climate solution investments by 2030, capitalizing on opportunities in the transition to a low-carbon economy. This target spans multiple asset classes. Climate solutions include assets or entities that are expected to contribute to climate change mitigation and/or facilitate adaptation to its impacts. For more information about how UPP defines climate solutions, please refer to the CTIF.
Since publishing our target in 2023, UPP has committed a total of $740 million1 to climate solutions, making good progress toward our $1.2 billion goal. A notable example is our 2025 investment in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ Green Credit Fund II (GCF II). By investing capital into GCF II, which provides senior secured, asset-backed loans to renewable energy and energy transition projects, including solar, wind, and storage across North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific – we are supporting efforts to decarbonize the energy sector. This investment not only advances UPP’s CAP objectives but also diversifies our portfolio and helps build long-term value for members.
1 As of November 2025.
Engage
Engage with portfolio companies and market actors, including asset managers, to encourage a transition to a resilient, low-carbon, net-zero world, and sufficient climate-related disclosure.
UPP’s 2023-2025 Climate Stewardship Plan (CSP) defines how UPP engages with priority companies, providing tools and outlining commitments to encourage progress toward decarbonization and support the transition to net-zero.
2025 stewardship highlights
In 2025, we continued to advance our stewardship priorities with a clear focus on promoting climate action, transparency, and accountability across our portfolio.
Proxy voting
During the 2025 proxy season, UPP voted against directors at 11% of public companies in our portfolio due to concerns surrounding inadequate board oversight of climate-related matters or insufficient climate action in high-impact sectors. We communicated directly with over 30 of these companies to clarify the reasons for our votes and outline the expectations behind our proxy voting decisions.
Direct and collaborative engagement
Through participation in SHARE and Climate Engagement Canada, UPP engaged in collaborative discussions with the companies prioritized under the Climate Stewardship Plan. Of those that were engaged, six high-emitting Canadian companies made progress on one or more of our engagement priorities, including:
- New emissions disclosures
- Improved decarbonization strategies
- Adoption of science-based emissions reduction targets
UPP also conducted sustained engagement with Canadian banks, another priority sector, encouraging advancement of client climate risk assessment, financed emissions targets and reductions, and greater funding of climate solutions. amid growing pressure, meaningful climate-related progress has continued in many of these areas.
Across the board, UPP also continues to amplify our influence through ongoing participation in the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), contributing to industry guidelines and collaborative initiatives while supporting external managers and ensuring investor needs are represented.
As we look ahead to 2026, UPP will continue to assess the progress companies have made against Climate Stewardship Plan objectives, such as policy improvements and emissions reductions aligned with recognized climate plans.
Engagement with external investment managers
UPP’s supports the improvement of responsible investing practices. Since the program was expanded in 2024, UPP has strengthened our relationships with investment partners and supported progress in areas such as and climate risk analysis.
Over the last year, we provided all external managers with feedback on their responsible investing initiatives, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement. Overall, the feedback was well received, with many managers indicating they will integrate these priorities into their strategies.
We also encouraged 15 of our managers to focus on emissions reporting, climate integration in investment processes, greater climate risk analysis, and supporting portfolio companies’ decarbonization pathways.
Advocate
Advocate for public policy and market systems that support limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5˚C.
The Climate Stewardship Plan also shapes our advocacy on issues that can impact economy-wide climate progress, such as mandatory emissions disclosure, climate transition plans, and support for the economy’s low-carbon shift. Through consultations, policy recommendations, and dialogue with other investors, we contribute to advancing meaningful climate action and help create a more resilient world for our members to retire into.
2025 Advocacy Highlights
In 2025, UPP focused our advocacy efforts on supporting stronger emissions disclosure standards and climate transition plans – both in Canada and internationally:
- We advanced conversations with federal partners on sustainable finance and climate policy initiatives.
- Together with our pension peers, UPP led advocacy for the mandatory adoption of the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board’s climate disclosure standards in Canada and promoted international alignment across six jurisdictions, including the UK, EU, and the State of California.
- We signed several statements, including a joint investor-company statement to the US Environmental Protection Agency in support of continued regulation of GHG emissions.
- We also supported industry climate action initiatives through CDP climate disclosure campaigns, Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) engagement and policy activities, and our involvement in Climate Engagement Canada (CEC).
UPP reports on our CAP progress annually. To learn more about our climate action and responsible investing approach, please visit:
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