We are facing twin crises: air pollution and climate breakdown, and the solution to both is absolutely clear: we need to close coal power plants and mines in Europe on a massive scale, and we need to do it by 2030 at the absolute latest.
However, while the path we have to take is clear, most coal companies are pushing us down another one: building and expanding new plants and mines, and lobbying to slow down and block efforts to justly transition away from their dirty business model. They want business as usual, but they cannot have it without insurance. Insurers have a duty to make good investments, but they also have a duty to avoid projects that harm people’s health and our collective future.
By insuring coal, companies such as Talanx (the head group of the reinsurer Hannover Re and of the insurer TuIR Warta), VIG and UNiqa are failing on both counts. Several European insurers have already started to move because of public outcry; and companies are increasingly struggling to secure both finance and insurance thanks to the efforts of people like you. A youtuber went to Germany and Poland to investigate the impacts of the projects and companies supported by European insurers and financiers.
