Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)

In terms of senior leadership accountability, CDPQ assigns responsibility for sustainability issues to the board-level Governance and Ethic Committee. The financial institution has a gender-balanced board of directors where 6 out of 13 members are women. It also has a sustainable investing policy where it describes its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees, including its approach to engagement escalation. CDPQ publishes an overview of its engagement activities over the past year and provides case studies of successful engagement with investees. 

CDPQ has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses absolute financed emissions, including the underlying data quality and coverage. It also discloses the key sectors it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, including engagement on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. CDPQ is a member of Climate Action 100+. The financial institution discloses the aggregate amount of investments it devotes to climate solutions and reports that they are defined according to internationally adopted frameworks. Further, it aims to invest CAD 54 billion in green assets by 2025. Additionally, CDPQ discloses the amount of finance directed towards all fossil fuels through all its financing activities. 

CDPQ has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. It also has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses a global tax strategy. The financial institution discloses the list of its depositors, pension funds, by total assets and the list of all its investments. 

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, CDPQ could link the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. The financial institution also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. Further, it could disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. CDPQ has an opportunity to also publishes case studies describing where it has engaged unsuccessfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics. 

There is an opportunity for CDPQ to disclose absolute interim financed emissions reduction targets, rather than intensity-based targets. The financial institution encourages its investees to set a 1.5°C-aligned strategy but it has an opportunity to make this a requirement. CDPQ could also set a policy that it does not provide any form of financial service to any new fossil fuel projects or to a company undertaking new fossil fuel projects. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions. 

CDPQ has an opportunity to publish a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UNGPs and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. Further, it could describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its investment activities. It also has an opportunity to disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group, gender or another indicator of diversity. The financial institution states that it has a process for identifying bribery and corruption but could disclose details of this process. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, CDPQ could disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.