Today’s young workers face a growing challenge that today’s seniors did not: they will be claiming their pensions in a world increasingly shaped by the risks and costs of a changing climate.

Four brave young people are asking whether the manager of Canada’s largest public pension — the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) — is adequately preparing for that future.

Represented by lawyers at Ecojustice and Goldblatt Partners, these young people are taking the CPPIB to court, alleging that the Board is failing to protect their future pensions from the financial risks of climate change.

Learn more about the case

This case raises a fundamental question about generational fairness: when an institution manages money on behalf of people spanning multiple generations, what does it owe those who won't depend on that money until decades from now?

Climate risk is also retirement risk

CPPIB manages more than $730 billion in CPP assets on behalf of over 22 million Canadians, making it one of the largest pension fund managers in the world.

The applicants are arguing that CPPIB has a duty to protect the financial interests of young Canadians and future generations by making investment decisions that reflect their best interests — including their interest in a stable financial system and healthy economy capable of supporting their retirement security decades from now.

They allege that CPPIB is underestimating the financial impacts of climate change. As a result, the Board isn't doing enough to protect the long-term value of the pension fund to which young Canadians are required to contribute today.

The four young people bringing this legal case won't be eligible to collect CPP retirement benefits until after 2050. By then, the economic and environmental conditions in which they retire could look very different from those experienced by retirees today.

Ottawa’s 2026 report on Canada's Changing Climate makes the risks clear. As the planet warms further, Canada is projected to experience more frequent and severe droughts and flash floods, more intense extreme rainfall, worsening fire weather, and longer fire seasons, among other changes.

Those aren't only environmental risks. Damaged infrastructure, disrupted supply chains, rising insurance costs, lost productivity, and slower economic growth can become financial risks too. That's important for a pension fund whose investments depend on the long-term health of companies, economies, and financial markets around the world.

CPPIB recognizes that climate change creates investment risks. What the case disputes is whether the Board is adequately assessing and managing those risks consistent with the latest scientific research — especially systemic risks and tipping points associated with higher levels of warming.

For the young people at the heart of the case, the question is whether CPPIB's responsibilities as an investment manager require it to do more to protect the long-term stability of the pension fund.

They aren't asking the court for money. They are asking it to clarify the CPPIB's obligations to contributors and beneficiaries in a context of growing climate-related financial risks.

That distinction matters. This isn't simply a debate about whether people approve or disapprove of particular investments. It is a legal challenge about how a pension manager assesses and manages long-term risks that will unfold over generations.

Another bill coming due for younger generations

At Generation Squeeze, we see this case as part of a much larger generational story.

Young Canadians are already being asked to absorb costs created by problems that accumulated before they had much economic or political power to influence them.

Our budget analyses show that governments across the ideological spectrum aren't adequately adapting spending to address the financial pressures and deteriorating wellbeing younger generations experience. Instead, governments’ decades-long failure to prepare for the predictable costs of population aging means that rising bills for seniors’ medical care and income supports are crowding out priorities that matter most for young people.

Then add climate change.

Ask governments to stop shortchanging younger generations

Younger Canadians will live longer with the consequences of today's emissions and today's decisions about how quickly to reduce them. Ottawa's latest climate science tells us that many risks grow with every additional increment of warming.

The CPPIB legal challenge raises the prospect of another layer of generational risk: after contributing to the CPP throughout their working lives, could younger Canadians reach retirement with their pension fund having been unnecessarily exposed to financial risks associated with the changing climate they inherit?

The courts will decide the legal merits of their claims. But the generational tensions they are exposing deserve attention now.

Pensions can model what it means to be good ancestors

Pension funds are remarkable intergenerational institutions. They require us to think beyond today's market performance and today's retirees to people who may not collect benefits for decades – for CPPIB that time horizon is at least 75 years.

That makes stewardship central to their purpose.

Young Canadians generally don't get to opt out of CPP contributions. With every paycheque, they uphold their side of an intergenerational bargain designed to provide greater security in retirement. The institution managing those contributions has a corresponding responsibility to take the long view.

That's why Gen Squeeze is proud to help amplify the important work being led by the four young Canadians bringing this case forward. Whatever its eventual legal outcome, they are asking institutions today to take seriously their obligations to the people who will inherit tomorrow.

Generational fairness isn't about pitting young against old — it's about recognizing that we all inherit, and we all leave something behind. For Gen Squeeze, every generation should strive to leave more than it takes.

Previous generations built institutions like the CPP because they understood that collective action today could create greater security decades into the future. Our responsibility is to practice that same kind of foresight now.

Being good ancestors means leaving younger and future generations strong public institutions, sustainable finances, a stable climate, and genuine reasons to be hopeful about the lives ahead of them. It also means refusing to discount a risk simply because its largest consequences may arrive after today's decision-makers have left office or today's investors have retired.

The four young Canadians taking CPPIB to court are asking whether Canada's largest pension manager is living up to that responsibility. It's a question all of us should care about — because pension promises that span generations require stewardship that does too.

Take action — support young Canadians on their CPPIB challenge