Read the letter and risk briefing sent to the world’s leading fossil fuel (re)insurers today.
Over 70 civil society organisations from more than 20 countries across 6 continents are calling on the world’s leading (re)insurers to rule out cover for fossil fuel expansion in the Coral Triangle and end their support for new fossil gas infrastructure globally.
Liquefied fossil gas (LNG) is often framed as a bridge fuel. In reality, it is increasingly a vector of instability, exposed to geopolitical shocks, supply disruptions, and price volatility. Rather than reducing risk, LNG expansion is amplifying it across global energy systems.
Fossil fuel expansion more broadly is driving climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, supply chain disruption, and escalating human rights impacts. Insurers and reinsurers are not only exposed to these risks, they are actively embedding them into the financial system by continuing to underwrite and invest in new oil and gas expansion. In a world of compounding crises, credible risk management requires a rapid phase-out of fossil fuel expansion.
By contrast, renewable energy, particularly solar, wind, storage, and grids, offers a more stable, scalable, and domestically anchored pathway to energy security. Shifting away from fossil gas expansion is therefore not only a climate imperative, but a core risk management decision.
As insurers and reinsurers enter AGM season, the sector faces a clear choice: accelerate the energy transition, or continue underwriting and financing rising systemic instability.
The Coral Triangle: A hotspot of biodiversity and risk
Nowhere is this tension clearer than in the Coral Triangle. Spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste, it is the world’s most biodiverse marine region and one of the most climate-vulnerable.
Despite covering a small fraction of the world’s oceans, it contains around 76% of global coral species and more than 2,000 species of reef fish. It is a global centre of marine biodiversity and a critical nursery for fisheries. It also includes numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites and hundreds of Marine Protected Areas.
The Coral Triangle supports the livelihoods of more than 360 million people in the region and underpins global seafood systems. Its reefs, mangroves, and seagrass ecosystems provide natural coastal protection, reducing disaster losses across typhoon-prone economies and strengthening climate resilience. It is a critical pillar of economic and climate resilience.
Nature loss in this region does not remain local. It increases disaster risk, deepens economic fragility, and heightens exposure to climate impacts, economic fragility and political instability across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Yet it is rapidly becoming a hotspot for fossil gas expansion.
There are already 183 oil and gas fields across the region, with dozens more in development and hundreds of exploration blocks. LNG infrastructure is expanding fast: 19 terminals are operating and at least 27 more are planned, many located dangerously close to coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass ecosystems.
If fully developed, offshore oil and gas fields could expand to cover up to 16% of this marine region, overlapping significantly with critical habitats.
The consequences are predictable: ecosystem degradation, increased disaster risk, and mounting economic insecurity for communities already on the frontlines of climate breakdown.
The Coral Triangle, often called the “Amazon of the sea”, should not be sacrificed for fossil gas expansion when affordable, secure, and scalable renewable alternatives already exist.
LNG expansion is a growing and systemic risk
LNG is frequently framed as a transition fuel, yet its full lifecycle emissions, including methane leakage, liquefaction, and transport, can rival or exceed coal. The International Energy Agency is clear: no new fossil fuel expansion is compatible with a 1.5°C pathway, and gas production must fall more than 70% by mid-century.
Up to 70% of LNG projects under construction today risk failing to recover their capital in a 1.5°C-aligned scenario. These projects are capital-intensive, exposed to demand uncertainty, overcapacity, and accelerating competition from cheaper renewables.
This creates a widening mismatch between fossil infrastructure lifetimes and insurable risk horizons, increasing insurers’ exposure to stranded assets and long-term climate liability.
Continued support for LNG expansion therefore undermines climate goals while increasing financial system instability.
Insurers must act now
Without insurance, fossil fuel projects cannot proceed. Insurers therefore play a decisive role in determining whether fossil expansion continues or is constrained.
Limiting insurance capacity for fossil gas expansion, especially in high-biodiversity regions like the Coral Triangle, is one of the most effective levers to reduce systemic climate, nature and economic risk.
Our large global network call on insurers to:
- Establish a no-go zone for fossil gas expansion in the Coral Triangle
- Exclude cover for projects in all high-biodiversity and protected areas
- End support for fossil gas expansion globally
- Require respect for human rights and Free, Prior and Informed Consent
- Scale up support for renewable energy and a just transition
Protecting the Coral Triangle offers insurers and reinsurers a clear opportunity to demonstrate credible leadership and align portfolios with climate stability, ecosystem protection, and respect for communities.
The risks are clear. The question is whether insurers will act before they are locked into them.
To learn more, see our risk briefing, letter to (re)insurers and advocacy demands below.
