By Kuba Gogolewski, Senior Finance Campaigner, Foundation “Development YES – Open-Pit Mines NO” Poland is the country most dependent in the European Union on dirty and polluting coal, and is the only EU country that is still planning a massive expansion of its coal sector. If built, the pollution from these plants will lead to the premature […]
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By Daniel Schreiber, CEO of Lemonade You wouldn’t think your insurance company would invest your premiums in businesses that increase the catastrophes you’re paying them to protect you against. Think again. A recent study published in the scientific journal Climatic Change showed that emissions from products and processes of 90 fossil fuel companies – the […]
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By Lucie Pinson, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal Campaign in Europe A banner floats off the coast of Monaco, in front of the luxury hotel Fairmont where the major players of the reinsurance markets gather for a cocktail party at the 62nd Rendez-Vous de Septembre, a major industry event. It says “Reinsurers, Unfriend Coal”. Swiss […]
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Reinsurers’ policy loopholes keep coal industry afloat Download the briefing PDF – Reinsuring Climate Chaos A handful of reinsurers have the power to hasten the phase-out of coal and play an important role in the fight against climate change but weak industry policies are undermining action taken by direct insurers, reveals a briefing from the […]
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By Stephanie Morton, Insurance Lawyer, ClientEarth Following a public consultation the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has recently released its final Issues Paper on Climate Change Risks to the Insurance Sector. Its conclusions could push regulators to scrutinise climate risk more closely. The Paper aims to provide an overview of how climate change is affecting and […]
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By Stephanie Morton, Insurance Lawyer, ClientEarth ClientEarth has reported three insurance companies to the Financial Conduct Authority for failing to disclose climate change-related risks in their annual reports. The three insurers targeted are Admiral Group plc, Lancashire Holdings Limited and Phoenix Group Holdings. The complaints, available on ClientEarth’s website, include an extensive discussion of the […]
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Positive: Many more coal companies to be divested Too little: Only excludes coal insurance in industrialised countries Hannover Re is now under increased pressure to act Munich, August 6, 2018: The Unfriend Coal campaign, together with Urgewald and the social movement Avaaz, today welcomed the latest announcement by Munich Re CEO Joachim Wenning on his […]
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Regine Richter, Energy and Finance Campaigner at Urgewald Yesterday, Handelsblatt published an interview with Munich RE’s CEO Joachim Wenning on climate change and its fatal effects. He showed again that he has perfectly understood the meaning of the Paris Agreement, explaining that by 2050 the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels need to be […]
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With a new Fair Finance Guide, four Japanese environmental organizations have for the first time rated the investment and lending policies of the country’s eight leading insurance companies. The guide, which was published in Tokyo on July 25, awarded the highest scores to MS&AD ahead of SOMPO. In recent weeks some Japanese insurers have initiated […]
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SF becomes first US city to push insurance industry to stop insuring coal and tar sands SAN FRANCISCO – Today the San Francisco Board of Supervisors became the first municipal body in the United States to call upon insurance companies to stop insuring and investing in fossil fuels, citing the need to address climate change and […]
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Some places – think of China’s Great Wall, Egypt’s pyramids, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef – are of such outstanding universal value that they have been recognized as World Heritage Sites. Under a UN convention, host governments commit to protect these sites for present and future generations while they derive some economic […]
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NGOs supporting the Unfriend Coal Campaign have called on insurers in a letter to take a stand against coal expansion and refuse to insure a new 660MW coal power plant in the Czech Republic. The Czech state-owned power utility was tendering the insurance contract for its Ledvice III lignite-fired power unit with a deadline of […]
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The Unfriend Coal Campaign today welcomed Swiss Re’s decision to stop reinsuring businesses with more than 30% exposure to thermal coal and called on Munich Re to follow suit. Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal Campaign, said: “Swiss Re’s announcement sends a strong signal from one of the world’s ultimate managers of risk to governments, […]
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With AXA, Allianz and Zurich, some of the world’s biggest insurers have stopped or limited insuring coal projects. Smaller players often don’t have the expertise and financial strength to do the due diligence and insure the risks of billion-dollar coal mines and power plants on their own. They need back-up support from reinsurance companies to […]
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Hannover Re, world’s third-largest reinsurer, latest to restrict investment Close to half the global reinsurance market has now divested from coal after Hannover Re informed the Unfriend Coal campaign and Urgewald that it has adopted an exclusion policy. Hannover Re has set a tight threshold, divesting from companies which depend on coal for more than […]
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By Lucie Pinson, Senior Campaigner, Unfriend Coal When I joined a meeting of Unfriend Coal campaigners at the InterContinental Hotel in Paris the other day, a staff member of the Geneva Association, the think-tank of global insurance CEOs, stood at the door to our meeting room listening in. Caught in an awkward situation, she quickly […]
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Heads in the sand? The insurance industry, tar sands and pipelines Many of the world’s biggest insurers, including AIG, Munich Re and Zurich, are undermining global climate goals and Indigenous rights by supporting the tar sands industry, reveals a briefing paper by the Unfriend Coal campaign released today. NGOs supporting the campaign have also written […]
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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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