Insurers accelerated the shift away from coal, new study finds

Fossil fuel exclusions are effective but Lloyd’s and Zurich play questionable roles. Insurance companies which adopted coal restrictions significantly reduced the number of coal mines and the amount of coal which they insured in the United States, thus contributing to the shift away from coal. This is the main finding of a new working paper which …

The 2025 Insurance AGM Season: Continued Inaction on Climate

Many insurance companies across Europe and North America just wrapped up their annual shareholder meetings. Insure Our Future network organisations recently attended to assess how insurers are approaching climate risk and fossil fuels, as the climate crisis intensifies and threatens to undermine the insurance industry itself. What they witnessed was a bleak picture of continued …

18 global insurers and 10 banks have excluded the Alaska LNG from their support

18 global insurers and 10 banks have excluded the Alaska LNG from their support – Environmental NGOs urged Tokio Marine to comply its policy at the annual general meeting – Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES) Friends of the Earth Japan Mekong Watch Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Oil Change International First published …

Insurers’ exclusion policies contribute to mine closures, study finds

A new academic study by researchers at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Finance Institute provides the first systematic evidence on the effects of insurers’ carbon underwriting policies. The study finds that when major insurers wield their underwriting power to manage climate risks, this can have real consequences for the coal industry. Using data …

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

London, June 2 2025 – 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 taking the first …

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 …

Beautiful Architecture building cityscape with tower in Seoul city South Korea

Insured for profit, not for protection? Korean insurers face scrutiny over fossil fuel investments and disaster coverage

Seoul, April 29 2025 – Originally posted by Solutions For Our Climate here – Consumers Korea, with the help of Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), is calling on regulators to examine the role of insurance companies in both worsening the climate crisis and denying compensation for its consequences. On April 29, Consumers Korea submitted a …

Strong shareholder vote sends Fairfax a clear message on climate risk

The Fairfax AGM was last week where our proposal asking the company to disclose its financed emissions was voted on. The company has now released the voting results, unfortunately not breaking out the numbers by shares controlled by the CEO vs. those voted by other shareholders, but we can calculate those numbers based on turnout. The result: a …

Climate change: senior insurance leader warns of economic collapse

Zurich, 31 March 2025 – Why are all his peers remaining silent? Managing the risks of natural disasters, insurers are well aware of the fundamental risks which climate change poses to the global financial system and society. Munich Re first predicted growing climate risks in 1973, and the then CEO of AXA famously warned in …

Swiss insurance companies under the climate microscope

Zurich, 27 March 2025 – New report from Campax reveals none of Switzerland’s eight largest property and liability insurers have climate policies that are compatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement. This in-depth look at the Swiss insurance landscape suggests smaller regional companies tend to perform less well than international heavyweights. Generali leads the …

Insurance gap in the age of climate crisis: New report spotlights Vienna Insurance Group’s alarming lack of effective climate policies

Prague, 11 March 2025 – As the impacts of climate crisis intensify, the role of the insurance business in either mitigating or deepening the crisis cannot be ignored. A new report The Insurance Gap in the Age of Climate Crisis: Ranking the Major Insurers in Central and Eastern Europe by the Czech NGO Re-set focuses …

Huge quarry bucket excavator works in a hot outdoors slag dump.

Reinsurers fuel the climate crisis while climate victims pay the price

Baden-Baden, 20 October 2023 – Ahead of the annual reinsurance congress in Baden-Baden, Urgewald and the international Insure Our Future network call on reinsurers to end their continued unqualified support of the fossil fuel industry, emissions from which are the prime contributor to global climate change. Reinsurance companies, whose role is to provide insurance to …

Coal mining in surface mine. Miner looking on the huge excavator.

Leading European insurers underwrite 30% of U.S. coal despite net zero pledges

Washington, D.C., 28 September 2023 – Leading European insurers are underwriting nearly a third of U.S. coal production despite their net zero commitments, reveals a new report released today by Insure Our Future. Lloyd’s of London, Zurich and Swiss Re are among the top ten insurers of the 25 biggest U.S. mines, which produced more …

nyiragongo volcano, nord Kivu, DRC

New Report from Greenpeace: Congo oil fields are quickly becoming uninsurable

Kinshasa, 8 September 2023 – Any company granted exploration and exploitation rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) oil auction could find itself without financial protection, according to a report published today by Greenpeace Africa, Insure our Future, Reclaim Finance and Urgewald. If leading insurance and reinsurance companies follow their commitments and their general …

A hurricane due to climate change

In response to climate deniers, insurers must step up climate action

Written in collaboration with Reclaim Finance. Numerous insurers have quit the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) under pressure from climate denying politicians and officials in the United States. The insurance industry has for decades been aware of the causes and serious consequences of climate change and its business model is being shaken by repeated multi-billion …

Fossil fuel insurers top Christmas 2022’s naughty list

Leaders of some of the world’s biggest insurance companies including Lloyd’s of London, AIG, Swiss Re and Allianz, will find out if they have been naughty or nice when they receive a specially selected Christmas gift from the climate action group, Mothers Rise Up, today. The CEO’s of six insurance companies – Lloyd’s of London …

2022 Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels, and the Climate Emergency

Insure Our Future’s annual scorecard ranks the top 30 global fossil fuel insurers on the quality of their fossil fuel exclusion policies. This year Allianz, AXA and Axis Capital rank best for their coal exit policies, while Aviva, Hannover Re and Munich Re come out on top for their oil and gas exclusions. At the bottom of fossil fuel rankings are a group of insurers …

With new coal uninsurable, insurers start to move on oil and gas

62% of reinsurers now have coal exit policies and 38% have oil and gas exclusions as shift away from fossil fuels accelerates Insurance company restrictions on oil and gas are finally starting to catch up with those on coal, according to new data from the Insure Our Future campaign. Ahead of COP27, the campaign coalition …

Exposed: Insurers of Ichthys LNG – one of world’s biggest gas projects

Will major insurers rule out support for Ichthys LNG’s expansion? One month before COP27, Reclaim Finance calls on global insurers not to renew insurance coverage to Ichthys LNG, one of the most carbon-intensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Australia whose promoters TotalEnergies and Inpex (1) are currently planning its climate-wrecking expansion. Based on rare …

The Arctic Refuge Scorecard

The Gwich’in Steering Committee (GSC) released an update to its scorecard that tracks global insurance companies’ policy on fossil fuel development in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Since the initial release of the scorecard in August 2021, six additional “gold medal” companies have been added for a total of 12 international insurers with …

The Oil and Gas Policy Tracker

A tool to detect greenwashing practices in the finance sector Reclaim Finance and more than 15 NGOs launch the “Oil and Gas Policy Tracker” (OGPT). The tool is the first of its kind: it assesses in great detail the oil and gas exclusion policies (or lack thereof) of the 150 biggest financial institutions worldwide. The …

Swiss Re leads insurance industry’s exodus from oil and gas

Today, Swiss Re, the world’s second largest reinsurer, announced an enhanced oil and gas policy which brings new momentum to the insurance industry’s shift away from fossil fuels. Insure Our Future welcomes that Swiss Re is the first major oil and gas insurer to adopt a policy for the sector which excludes insurance for most …

Finance sector has moral imperative to exclude Russian fossil fuel firms

In solidarity with Ukraine, a coalition of NGOs and groups around the world have sent a letter calling on financial institutions most exposed to Russian oil, gas, and coal to cease all ties with these companies, and to stop propping up Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine.  Over 75 organisations, including Reclaim Finance, BankTrack, Stand.earth, Greenpeace, …

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