TORONTO, June 9 (Reuters) – Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) said on Thursday it expects to cut its exposure in greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting assets by 20-25% in the next four years as part of its new climate strategy.

The pension fund will also increase its investments in various shades of green assets and have an allocation for transition assets.

“We expect that by executing our climate strategy we will be able to achieve the reduction in GHG assets by 2026,” said Neil Cunningham, CEO PSP Investments.

PSP Investments has C$230.5 billion ($182.43 billion) under management.

The announcement comes even as other large Canadian pension funds remain firm on their plans of staying invested in carbon-intensive assets.

For example, the Canada Pension Plan’s largest pension fund by assets under management said in May it will continue to stay invested in fossil fuels and support companies in transitioning toward their net zero goals.

PSP will increase its investments in green assets from C$40.3 billion to C$70 billion by 2026 and will also cut its holdings of carbon-intensive assets without any transition plans by 50%.

PSP Investments expects to reach its climate-strategy targets by boosting its percentage of green assets in hopes of lowering its GHG emissions per dollar invested.

The fund generated an 8.9% annualized return on investments last year. Though the capital markets return in a year has been 3%, the pension fund is betting on its diversified portfolio of infrastructure and real estate assets which Cunningham said has helped it navigate the high interest-rate and supply chain volatility in the market.

On the newer grade of assets such as cryptocurrency, PSP Investments said that although the investment team is regularly studying the asset class, there are still unknowns that have kept the pension fund from investing.

($1 = 1.2635 Canadian dollars)

Reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto
Editing by Matthew Lewis

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