CalPERS defends $100 billion climate plan as ‘pro‑investment,’ outlines conference and recruitment updates

A CalPERS staff member updated trustees on the pension fund’s climate investment strategy on Monday, saying the organization’s $100,000,000,000 climate action plan is a “pro investment plan” rather than a divestment campaign and addressing a recent outside report and media coverage that questioned CalPERS’ accounting of climate investments.

The staff member said the fund continues to pursue what it calls “pro investing” opportunities to finance the energy transition while meeting its fiduciary duty to the plan’s roughly 2,300,000 members. “Our plan sets out an agenda through the February and we agree there's a lot of work to be done,” the staff member said.

The remarks responded to a report published two weeks earlier that the speaker said drew “several faulty conclusions” and was amplified by a Bloomberg News article. The staff member told trustees that the outside report overstated the role of legacy energy companies in CalPERS’ counted climate solutions and noted one cited company had only $29,000 included in CalPERS’ $53,000,000,000 baseline climate solutions tally.

“We believe that a pro investing approach to climate change means more than just betting on today's green companies,” the staff member said. The presentation said that some technologies contributing to climate solutions are being developed inside traditional energy companies and that CalPERS has, after review with outside analysts, assigned a limited investment value to those technologies.

The speaker reiterated that CalPERS’ methodology for identifying and tracking climate investments is science based and under continuous review, and said the fund welcomes conversation and transparency while defending the methodology against what it described as misleading coverage.

The staff member also recognized Michael Cohen, who had served as chair of the Climate Action 100+ steering committee, thanking him for his leadership and noting that Cohen will remain on the steering committee but step down as chair this week. “Under Michael's leadership, Climate Action 100+ reaffirmed its focus on seeking consensus and it prioritized dialogue with companies,” the staff member said.

Separately, the speaker provided brief updates on two administrative initiatives. CalPERS and CalSTRS opened registration this month for a jointly hosted Catalyst conference in Sacramento scheduled for May; the speaker said the event has capacity for about 800 registrants and was at roughly 20% capacity at the time of the update. The event pairs funders and those seeking funding in a speed‑dating style format intended to promote networking and pitching.

The staff member also described a new recruitment advertising campaign running in the Sacramento, Bay Area and Los Angeles markets. Early results, after about three weeks, showed more than 153,000 sessions to CalPERS’ website with roughly half of those visitors viewing career information, the speaker said. The campaign is slated to run through May.

The presenter acknowledged that public commenters at recent meetings urged CalPERS to adopt a different climate strategy, saying the pension fund “did hear you and we share your goals,” but emphasized the fund’s need to balance climate objectives with fiduciary obligations. No formal policy change or vote was taken during the update.

CalPERS staff said they will continue to refine the climate accounting methodology, engage with independent analysts, and report further findings to trustees in coming months. The staff member concluded by inviting questions from President Taylor and trustees.