Milan, Italy – Following the Italian insurance company, Generali’s announcement today about its improved coal exclusion policy that puts an end to insuring new coal plants and mines, while turning away new coal clients with more than 30% of their energy production or revenues coming from coal, Greenpeace Italy climate campaigner, Luca Iacoboni, said: “With […]
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For immediate release Generali and Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) have signed a 365,000 euro contract to insure a recently finished 660MW coal power plant in the Czech Republic, undermining international action to tackle climate change and clean up Europe’s air, the Unfriend Coal campaign revealed today. Coal is the biggest single source of CO2 emissions. […]
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By Lucie Pinson | European Coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign This weekend, thousands of activists from all over Europe are occupying RWE’s Hambach site, a giant open-pit lignite mine in North Rhine-Wesphalia in Germany (1). This annual mobilization has become a symbol of the fight against fossil fuels and has even greater significance this […]
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By Lucie Pinson | European Coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign This weekend, thousands of activists from all over Europe are occupying RWE’s Hambach site, a giant open-pit lignite mine in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Called Ende Gelände, this huge annual mobilization has become a symbol of the fight against fossil fuels (1). RWE is […]
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By Lucie Pinson, European coordinator, Unfriend Coal campaign. In four days, the IPCC will release its report on the consequences of a +1.5°C global warming. Their conclusions will be unquestionable: There is still time to prevent runaway climate change and its disastrous social impacts. But this would require tremendous immediate climate action and a thorough phase-out of […]
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by Peter Bosshard, Campaign Coordinator, Unfriend Coal Ever more serious hurricanes, wildfires and floods have triggered record losses for the insurance industry, and regions which are particularly threatened by extreme weather events are at risk of becoming uninsurable. Given these trends you would think that U.S. insurers would have turned out in large numbers to […]
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By Lucie Pinson, European Campaign Coordinator, Unfriend Coal At a time when every effort should be made to wean the world from fossil fuels, German company RWE announced that it intends to begin the clearance of the ancient forest of Hambach from 14 October 2018, in order to expand Europe’s largest open-pit mine, the Hambach […]
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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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