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.

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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.

Open letter to new Lloyd’s of London CEO Patrick Tiernan calling for climate leadership

London, June 2 2025 – First published here – Reclaim Finance has published an open letter addressed to Patrick Tiernan, who begins his tenure as CEO of Lloyd’s of London on June 1st. The open letter calls on him to show real leadership on climate change in the face of spiralling climate risks, in particular by …

Insurers must manage climate risk, not worsen it

Insurers are not just takers of risk, they’re makers of risk. That’s the message I left the audience at a Financial Times industry panel event last week, joined by insurance leaders from Howden, Munich Re, and Risilience.  The panel sought to understand the impacts of the so-called insurability crisis, that is the withdrawal of major …

Tallgrass Institute report: Free, Prior and Informed Consent Due Diligence for Insurers

Tallgrass Institute Publishes FPIC Due Diligence Guide for Insurers

Within the insurance industry, there are multiple touchpoints with Indigenous Peoples. Insurance companies with policies that respect Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination and to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) may find more opportunity to partner in an expanding marketplace. There is also a growing recognition among insurance providers of the risks associated with failing …