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

Oil & Gas: 13

13 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for new oil and gas projects

Coal: 41

41 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for coal projects

Tar Sands: 22

22 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for tar sands projects

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

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We have 6 demands to the insurance industry:

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

Phase out, in line with a credible 1.5ºC pathway, insurance for coal, oil and gas companies.

Divest all assets, including assets managed for third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies that are not aligned with a 1.5ºC pathway.

Read all 6 demands

Latest

Blog Letter Press Release Publication Go to latest

March 28, 2023

Annual letter to the CEOs of 30 major fossil fuel insurers, 2023

Every year, the Insure Our Future network publishes an open letter to the CEOs of 30 major insurance companies whose fossil fuel policies are ranked annually by Insure Our Future, among which are: AIG, Allianz, AXA, Chubb, Generali, Liberty Mutual, Lloyd’s of London, Munich Re, SCOR, Sinosure, SOMPO, Tokio Marine and Zurich. The letter outlines …

A group of activists dressed mostly in red jumpsuits stand in front of an office building with large glass windows. They are holding signs and banners with different phrases about "stopping EACOP" there are yellow signs on the ground and a black fake oil spill on the ground.

February 23, 2023

Lloyd’s Insurers Talbot & Cincinnati targeted in global ‘week of action’ against ‘toxic’ pipeline

Today, 23rd February activists from the StopEACOP Coalition held an ‘oil spill’ demonstration outside the offices of two insurance companies, Talbot & Cincinnati Global Underwriting to demand the companies rule out the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Activists staged a moveable ‘oil spill,’ with hazard signs that highlighted the risks of the controversial …

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Large silver skyscraper building that is the Lloyds of London office with a clear blue sky behind.

February 16, 2023

British and African Quakers urge against insurance for East African pipeline

In an open letter Paul Parker, recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, and Bainito Wamalwa, Africa section clerk of Friends World Committee for Consultation, asked for a meeting with the world’s leading insurance market to discuss its action on climate change. They urged Lloyd’s Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown and Chief Executive John Neal, whose members insure a large …

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