Our best insurance is to keep fossil fuels in the ground

Insurance companies have a responsibility to immediately stop insuring fossil fuel expansion. Except for a few laggards, most insurers have stopped insuring new coal projects under pressure from the Insure Our Future campaign. However, contradicting their own climate commitments, most insurers continue to underwrite the expansion of the oil and gas industry.

Learn more

Number of companies with fossil fuel exclusion policies, by sector

Insurers, as society’s risk managers, should take responsibility to actively support global action to avoid climate breakdown, and drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. Without insurance most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead and existing ones must close.

 

Click here to view a detailed document on insurance company fossil fuel underwriting policies

Insurers need to stop supporting fossil fuel expansion

Insure Our Future calls on all insurers to immediately stop insuring new fossil fuel projects, and to phase out existing coal, oil and gas insurance in line with a 1.5°C pathway.

Prominent voices from the public and private sector agree:

Reducing exposure to Oil & Gas should be the next environmental objective for insurers… and could help unlock an additional ‘green premium’ for the sector.

Société Générale

There are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway [Net-Zero to 2050] and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required.

International Energy Agency's Net Zero by 2050 report, May 2021

We need net zero commitments to cover your underwriting portfolios, and this should include the underwriting of coal – and all fossil fuels.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the Insurance Development Forum

I encourage insurers to only underwrite those portfolios that are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

We have 7 demands to the insurance industry:

1

Immediately cease insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.

2

Immediately stop insuring any new customers from the fossil fuel sector which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C pathway, and stop offering any insurance services which support the expansion of coal, oil and gas production even among existing customers. By the end of 2025, completely phase out all insurance services for existing fossil fuel company customers which have not published such a transition plan.

3

Immediately divest all assets, including assets managed for third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C scale up investments in a just, equitable, and rapid global transition to a clean energy economy.

Climate change accounts for over a third of insured weather losses this century and rising

Cut emissions today to insure tomorrow, warns report as 2024 marks the first year to cross red line of 1.5°C global heating  Insure Our Future’s eighth annual scorecard report Within Our Power reveals that climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two …

Report: Within Our Power, Cut Emissions Today to Insure Tomorrow

Insure Our Future’s eighth annual scorecard report Within Our Power reveals that climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades — an immense climate price tag that insurers have long been passing on to policyholders. With voluntary corporate actions falling far …

Addressing the insurance crisis requires a unified approach to decarbonisation and resilience

The insurance crisis: an illness caused by rising climate risks The insurance industry is facing a growing crisis that threatens our society and the global economy. We have temporarily breached 1.5℃ leaving individuals increasingly vulnerable. The numbers are stark: Carbon Brief compiled every published study on the influence of climate change on extreme weather and …