{"id":155,"date":"2020-12-02T01:28:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T01:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clients.rubystudio.dk\/insureourfuture\/us\/2020-12-1-nbspus-insurers-fail-on-climate-action\/"},"modified":"2020-12-02T01:28:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T01:28:32","slug":"2020-12-1-nbspus-insurers-fail-on-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/japan.insure-our-future.com\/en\/2020\/12\/02\/2020-12-1-nbspus-insurers-fail-on-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Insurers Fail on Climate Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detailed U.S. media briefing here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Interactive report site here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Global insurers make coal increasingly \u201cuninsurable\u201d; whole industry fails to act on oil & gas<\/h4>\n

LONDON (December 2, 2020)\u2014U.S. insurance companies lag behind their global peers and play a key role in enabling the fossil fuel industry, the Insure Our Future campaign revealed today in its fourth annual scorecard on insurers\u2019 climate policies.<\/p>\n

Insuring Our Future: The 2020 Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels and Climate Change<\/em><\/a> finds that most European and Australian insurers no longer provide coverage for new coal projects, which has made it harder and costlier to secure the insurance that coal projects need to operate.\u00a0Coal companies face rate increases of up to 40%. Controversial projects\u2014like the Adani Group\u2019s Carmichael coal mine in Australia\u2014are finding it hard to obtain insurance at all. This demonstrates the insurance industry\u2019s unique power to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Since the Insure Our Future campaign launched in 2017, at least 23 companies have ended or limited their coverage for coal projects, representing nearly half the global reinsurance market. Global insurers are also shifting capital away from coal: the combined assets of insurers committed to divestment or to no new coal investments increased from $4 trillion in 2017 to $12 trillion in 2020\u2014around 40% of the industry\u2019s total assets.<\/p>\n

Yet while six U.S. insurers have adopted policies on coal, most are riddled with loopholes. All 10 U.S. insurers assessed in the report received negative scores on \u201cclimate leadership\u201d for supporting lobby groups who oppose climate efforts. The scorecard\u2014which is published by 17 organizations from nine countries\u2014ranks 30 companies in total based on survey responses and public information. The report will be launched today at the Insurance, Risk and Capital EMEA conference in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. insurers like AIG, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers are providing a lifeline to the struggling coal industry and underpinning the expansion of oil and gas infrastructure that the climate cannot afford,\u201d said<\/strong> Ginger Cassady, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network. <\/strong>\u201cWhile leading global peers are exiting the coal sector and taking steps to restrict oil and gas business, the U.S. industry is continuing to pour fuel on the flames of the climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe insurance industry is the single most annoying part of this whole climate puzzle: they possess all the data about what global warming is doing to our earth, and yet they keep underwriting the industry that drives the damage. If they stay involved with coal and oil and gas, then the only thing they truly insure is our destruction,\u201d added Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and leader in the global divestment movement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Along with U.S. insurers, East Asian insurers and the Lloyd\u2019s market are also still insuring coal expansion. The UN\u2019s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that building any new fossil fuel project is incompatible with keeping global warming below 1.5\u00b0C, which avoids the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. Yet as of July 2020, more than 737 gigawatts of new coal power are planned or under construction worldwide, the equivalent of 368 Hoover Dams.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurers\u2019 continuing shift away from fossil fuels is positive, but in the face of a worsening climate crisis it needs to accelerate. Laggards like Lloyd\u2019s, AIG, and Tokio Marine must stop insuring coal now, and all insurers need to phase out support for the oil and gas industry,\u201d said Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the global Insure Our Future campaign.<\/p>\n

Shrinking coal market points to future for oil and gas\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the first time, the scorecard evaluates insurers\u2019 oil and gas commitments. It finds that the industry has failed to take comprehensive action: nine insurers have limited or ended cover for tar sands oil, but Australia\u2019s Suncorp is the first and only insurer to announce a phaseout of all oil and gas coverage. Not a single U.S. insurer has a policy on oil and gas expansion.<\/p>\n

The shrinking coal market demonstrates the impact insurers can have on fossil fuel development, and the highly concentrated oil and gas insurance sector is vulnerable. Ten insurers cover about 70% of the global oil and gas market<\/a>; U.S. insurers have the largest underwriting market share.<\/p>\n

U.S. insurers at the back of the pack<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Following the examples set by Chubb and AXIS Capital, Liberty Mutual and The Hartford adopted coal policies in the last 12 months, but these policies are significantly weaker than those of the leading European companies. Liberty Mutual, for example, does not rule out insuring new projects, and is still trying to build its own coal mine in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AIG remains one of the biggest insurers to have no coal policy whatsoever. It continues to provide coal insurance despite the fact that coal accounted for less than 1% of AIG\u2019s 2019 premiums<\/a>. Connecticut insurers W.R. Berkley and Travelers are also among the few insurers examined in the report that have no restrictions on coal underwriting.<\/p>\n

Overall, the report concludes that the industry is failing on climate. All 10 U.S. insurers support lobbying activities to thwart climate action. Liberty Mutual, for example, has been identified as a top sponsor<\/a> of Fox News\u2019 dangerous coronavirus and climate coverage.<\/p>\n

Overall findings include:<\/p>\n