Dustyn Lanz appointed as new CEO at Canada's Responsible Investment Association

The Responsible Investment Association on Tuesday announced the appointment of Dustyn Lanz as incoming Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2018. Current CEO Deb Abbey will retire following a five-year tenure in the role.

Lanz currently serves as Chief Operating Officer, and has worked with the RIA since 2013. He has played a central role in growing the RIA’s membership base and strengthening its brand and communications initiatives over the last four years, the RIA said in a statement.

"We are very pleased to appoint Dustyn as the next CEO of the RIA," said Jason Milne, Chair of the RIA's board of directors and Vice President, Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment with RBC Global Asset Management. "Dustyn's industry expertise, market understanding and passion for responsible investment will build on the success that Deb has helped the RIA to achieve." He added, "Deb has done an absolutely incredible job of leading this organization since 2013, and we wish her the very best in retirement."

To ensure a smooth transition, Abbey will work closely with Lanz until her retirement at the end of the year.

Although Lanz has only been working in the RI field for four years, he has done an excellent job promoting responsible investment to Canadians, under the able tutelage of Deb Abbey. SRI Monitor believes he will be a strong addition to the world of responsible investing in Canada.

Today’s New and Developing Carbon Markets, February 7, 2017

Organized by U of T’s School of the Environment, last Tuesday’s session was filled with a huge amount of new learning, contextualizing and updates, some of which I will share with you here. And if you thought you had enough acronyms from SRI, well, let me introduce you to a whole bunch more!

 

The day began with a presentation on Paris and Marrakesh by Gray Taylor, introduced as ‘the godfather of Canadian climate change law’.  

The COP (Conference Of the Parties) 21 Paris Agreement which was approved December 12, 2015 represents a worldwide consensus on addressing climate change.

Major elements include:

• CBDR
  In 1992, the world adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which established the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities. That is, all countries are responsible for dealing with climate change, but each will do so according to its means/abilities.
• Retention of the aspirational target of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels.
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
  These are the climate actions countries will take - their contribution to reducing/limiting climate change. Importantly, the NDC is set by the country itself. Mr. Taylor pointed out that this is a key difference from Kyoto, where targets were laid down from above. And if you remember, this fomented some ill will around, put simplistically, richer countries telling poorer countries what to do. 

• Robust reporting scheme
• Climate Finance
  The aim is to set up a fund with a minimum of 100 billion USD to assist developing country parties with both mitigation and adaption.
   
  COP 22 was held in Marrakech from November 7^th -17^th 2016. It turned out to be the best of times and the worst of times. As the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) reported, “Parties arrived in Marrakech buoyed by the agreement’s unexpectedly rapid entry into force, which took place November 4, only to be shocked a mere four days later by the election of Republican candidate Trump, who vowed during the campaign to “cancel” the Paris Agreement.”
   
  We heard from every speaker of the day the significant uncertainty President Trump has brought to climate change and energy planning. While the US pulling out of Paris would be unfortunate, to say the least, the Agreement requires at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions to ratify their pledge, and this would be met even without the US participating. Stay tuned - on Twitter!

Pension funds boost responsible investment assets

Canadian RI Assets Surpass $1.5 Trillion: Canadian RI Trends Report

 

The 2016 Canadian Responsible Investment Trends Report reveals that Canada’s responsible investment market is continuing to experience rapid growth. For example, total responsible investment assets grew 49% in two years to $1.5 trillion. Pension fund assets made up 75% of RI's growth, increasing by $374 billion since 2014. While most of RI's impressive growth is attributable to institutional investors, individual investor assets have nearly doubled in two years to $118 billion, a growth rate of 91%. Overall, responsible investing now represents 38% of Canada's investment industry.  Survey respondents are also optimistic about RI's future, with 80% predicting either moderate or high levels of growth in the next two years.