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 6 demands to the insurance industry:

1
Immediately cease insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.
2
Phase out, in line with a credible 1.5ºC pathway, insurance for coal, oil and gas companies.
3
Divest all assets, including assets managed for third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies that are not aligned with a 1.5ºC pathway.
Zurich in the morning by elxeneize

Global association of Insurance CEOs confronted by climate protest at 50th summit – Will they ‘Safeguard the Planet’ or Greenwash business as usual?

Zurich, 28 November 2023 – Insure Our Future campaigners are protesting at the Geneva Association’s 50th anniversary summit in Zurich today, demanding that the global insurance industry take immediate action to slow the climate crisis and support the urgent transition from fossil fuels to renewables.  The Geneva Association calls itself the only international association of …

A shot of natural gas storage tanks in sphere shape in Okayama, Japan

MS&AD Announce Significant Emission Reduction Target

Tokyo, 22 November 2023 – On November 21, MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings (hereafter MS&AD), one of Japan’s three major property and casualty insurers, announced a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target of 37%  for the underwriting and investment portfolio of its domestic clients by 2030, using 2019 as a baseline year* (PR in Japanese). This …

Campaigners call on the International Association of Insurance Supervisors to take action on climate

Activists gathered in front of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) annual conference venue in Tokyo, Japan, on the 9th of November, asking the global standard-setting body to take decisive measures and strengthen their efforts to prevent the worsening of the global climate crisis. 📣Outside the @IAISNews annual conference last week attended by over …