Intro We are alumni of Columbia University and members of the Columbia Divest for Climate Justice campaign. We wrote the following letter to urge our fellow Columbia alumnus––Mr. Galateri di Genola––to take bold climate leadership as the Chairman of the Generali Group and stop underwriting coal projects around the globe. Generali’s climate ambition is not […]
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By Lucie Pinson, Senior Campaigner, Unfriend Coal Aviva was asked during its AGM to complement its engagement with a consequential divestment approach, focusing its engagement on a small number of companies and divesting from others, starting with companies expanding their activities in carbon-intensive sectors such as coal and tar sands. In response, Sir Adrian Montague, […]
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Funding for developers planning 90GW of new coal power at odds with insurer’s climate commitments Download the briefing (PDF) – Aviva and Coal: a very long engagement Aviva has more than £920 million invested in companies developing new coal projects and operating in the tar sands industry, despite its support for the Paris Climate […]
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By Lucie Pinson, Senior Campaigner, Unfriend Coal “Left unchecked, climate change will render significant portions of the economy uninsurable, shrinking our addressable market”, Aviva warned in its 2015 strategic response to climate change . Known for its bold statements on climate change, British insurer Aviva is widely considered a climate leader in the finance industry. And […]
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By Yuki Tanabe, Program Director, Japan Centre for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES) In surprise announcements, the two largest life insurance companies of Japan have indicated that they will stop financing new coal projects. In late April, Nippon Life Insurance, the largest Japanese insurance company, announced that it was considering an end to new lending […]
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Campaigners welcome decision, ask industry laggards to ditch coal as well IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday May 4, 2018 Allianz, the world’s biggest insurance company by assets, announced today that it will no longer provide stand-alone insurance coverage for coal power plants or coal mines. The German insurer also announced that it will ban all companies planning to […]
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Motion increases pressure on CEOs meeting in city to divest and withdraw insurance The Paris city council is calling on the world’s biggest insurance companies to end support for the coal industry, citing its impact on climate change and the pollution that causes 23,000 premature deaths across Europe every year. The latest action follows the […]
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By Regine Richter, Energy and Finance Campaigner, Urgewald Munich RE cautioned against climate change long before others. The reinsurer has raised the issue since the 1970s. “We are the ones warning,” reiterated CEO Joachim Wenning at Munich RE’s Annual General Meeting on 25 April 2018. He made clear that he understands what the Paris climate […]
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Generali is supporting Polish coal plants which are estimated to cause thousands of premature deaths a year and undermine international efforts to combat climate change, NGOs supporting the Unfriend Coal campaign will warn at its AGM today. 102,422 people have called on Europe’s third largest insurer to end support for coal, in petitions organised by […]
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By Stephanie Morton, Insurance Lawyer, ClientEarth The coal industry and climate change are inextricably linked. As a result, underwriting and investing in coal presents a number of business risks to insurers. These include underwriting risk, strategic risk, investment risk and reputational risk. Many are set to be identified and discussed in an ‘issues paper’ on […]
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Insurer adopts coal divestment policy but takes no action on syndicates Lloyd’s new coal divestment policy affects just 2.5% of the market it oversees, leaving its syndicates free to continue business as usual with £77.5 billion exposed to climate risk, NGOs supporting the Unfriend Coal campaign warned today after receiving detailed information from the insurer. […]
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Petition calls on insurer to follow lead set by AXA and cease insuring mines and plants More than 90,000 people are calling on Generali to end support for coal, as Europe’s third biggest insurer announces its 2017 financial results. “Every day 53 people in Europe die an early death because of coal pollution”, [1] states […]
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By Peter Bosshard, Finance Program Director, The Sunrise Project In spite of frequent mass shootings and soaring numbers of gun victims, the gun debate in the United States was stuck in the tracks for many years. The courageous, angry and outspoken survivors of the Parkland school massacre in Florida have swept away this blocked debate […]
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By Lucie Pinson, Senior Campaigner, Unfriend Coal. In February, Generali announced first measures to reduce its support to the coal sector. Since 2015, 15 insurers have begun excluding coal from their investment portfolios and four of them have also committed to stop underwriting parts of the coal sector. It was thus time for Generali to […]
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By Kuba Gogolewski, Coordinator and Financial Campaigner, ‘Development Yes – Open Pit Mines No!’ Coal is king in Poland. The industry is so deeply politicised that when Pope Francis called for an end to coal use, the statement was declared anti-Polish – a remarkable stance in one of the most Catholic countries in the world. […]
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Environmental organisations have written to Lloyd’s, the world’s oldest insurance company, calling for it to take action on risky coal business, in a letter released today. Lloyd’s is preparing to exclude coal from its investment policy but NGOs believe that there is more the insurer could do to take action on the risks of coal. […]
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Generali coal policy does not go nearly far enough Generali has announced plans to divest €2 billion from coal but is not following AXA, Zurich and SCOR in restricting underwriting. Lucie Pinson, a coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, said: “Generali’s failure to act on underwriting is unacceptable. What it calls minimal underwriting support for coal […]
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Allianz fails to make any progress on coal policies at annual conference In its annual results media conference on Friday 16th February, Allianz was asked why, despite dramatic climate change, it does not cease underwriting coal and exclude coal companies from its third-party investments. Many environmental groups have been calling on the company to improve its coal […]
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By Lucie Pinson, Senior Campaigner, Unfriend Coal. Coal kills. Pollution from European coal power plants is responsible for an estimated 22,900 premature deaths every year, and health insurers are playing a surprising role in backing these projects. One country, Poland, is responsible for more than a quarter of this frightening total, and is planning to […]
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Allianz, Generali and Munich Re underwrite Europe’s biggest new coal power plant Major European insurers are backing the growth of Poland’s coal industry, supporting companies which are undermining international efforts to combat climate change and causing thousands of early deaths a year across the continent, reveals a briefing from the Unfriend Coal campaign published today. […]
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