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STILL SUPPORTING FOSSIL FUELS After HSBC moves away from oil and gas, all eyes turn to Lloyd’s Original article: Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
After HSBC moves away from oil and gas, all eyes turn to Lloyd’s
Peter Bosshard Peter@sunriseproject.org.au via gmail.mcsv.net
December 15th 2022, 8:46 AM
Insure Our Future
The fossil fuel finance year is ending with a bang: HSBC, the biggest British bank, terminated its support for new oil and gas fields on Wednesday, raising the expectation that other global financial institutions will follow suit.
We have seen some much-needed momentum in the insurance sector as well this year, with the number of oil and gas restrictions increasing from 3 to 13. Yet too many insurance companies continue to underwrite the expansion of oil and gas production. And with the British government’s decision to approve a new coal mine in North Cumbria, even King Coal is raising his ugly head again.
We have heard a lot of talk about the insurance industry’s net zero commitments this year. It is a sad sign for how shallow many of these commitments are that Lloyd’s of London has adopted coal restrictions and joined the Net Zero Insurance Alliance, but has still not ruled out support for the new coal mine. As you will read below, NGOs like Mothers Rise Up have put Lloyd’s on Santa’s naughty list again and plan to increase their pressure on fossil fuel insurers next year.
Peter Bosshard
Global Coordinator of the Insure Our Future campaign
HSBC kicks the oil and gas habit
In a surprise move HSBC announced that it would no longer finance new oil and gas fields yesterday. HSBC is the biggest global bank to adopt such restrictions so far. The bank will continue to offer corporate finance to energy sector clients whose transition plans are consistent with a net zero by 2050 commitment.
“HSBC is the biggest British bank and its new oil and gas exit policy sends a strong message to the whole City of London”, Lindsay Keenan, the coordinator of the European Insure Our Future campaign, said in response to the decision. “Like HSBC, Lloyd's of London has signed a net-zero commitment and needs to adopt an oil and gas exit policy for its insurance market without further delay.”
Six insurance companies are at the top of Santa's naughty list
Today Lloyd’s of London Chair, Bruce Carnegie-Brown was greeted by mothers and children delivering his naughty list gifts outside of Lloyd’s HQ. Gifts for Carnegie-Brown, who is also Chair of Marylebone Cricket club, included a clock engraved with the words ‘Bruce, time is running out for cricket and our children. Insure our Future!’ Lloyd’s - the oldest and most influential insurance market - has not ruled out insuring the Cumbrian coal mine and Lloyd’s syndicates are insuring fossil fuel expansion in the North Sea.
“This is a bit of festive fun but it comes with a serious message. We need to keep all remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground if we are to avoid a climate catastrophe.” Chryso Chellun, from Mothers Rise Up said about the action. “ Insurance bosses such as Bruce Carnergie-Brown and John Neal at Lloyd’s know what they need to do to get off the naughty list: rule out insuring all new fossil fuel projects including the Cumbria coal mine and North Sea oil and gas fields and develop a plan to quickly phase down support for existing oil and gas.”
The CEO’s of the five US insurers STARR, Liberty Mutual, Chubb, Travelers, and AIG are on the naughty list as well and will receive Christmas socks emblazoned with their faces and a message to ‘Pull Your Socks Up.’ Check out @MothersRiseUp on Twitter for updates about this action.
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
A week after the British government shocked the world by approving a new coal mine project in North Cumbria, insurance campaigners made it clear that they would challenge any insurer underwriting the coal project.
“Insuring the Whitehaven coal mine is insuring climate chaos,” said Daniel Therkelsen, a campaigner with Coal Action Network. “It’s late-stage capitalism that the insurance industry sell insurance against climate change-related damage whilst insuring projects, like the Whitehaven coal mine, that drive climate change.”
Lloyd’s of London adopted fossil fuel restrictions in December 2020, but has not mandated its insurers to implement them. The Corporation declined to comment on Whitehaven coal. The new coal mine is so controversial that we won’t be surprised if its underwriters are leaked to the public.
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, the International Renewable Energy Agency has found that global wind power capacity must grow eight- and solar capacity five-fold by 2030. Scaling up the renewable energy sector is all the more urgent in order to replace Russian fossil fuels with wind and solar rather than new oil and gas projects. A white paper commissioned by the Insure Our Future campaign looks at what the insurance industry needs to do to accelerate the clean energy revolution.
Asia’s second-largest reinsurance company, Korean Re, will no longer be providing reinsurance for new coal mining or power plant construction from next month. However, Solutions For Our Climate and other NGOs pointed out that the Korean company’s coal policy has significant loopholes. Over 60 percent of the global reinsurance market, including all big European reinsurers except for Lloyd's, have already adopted coal-exit policies. In fact, climate change was voted the biggest concern for reinsurers in a 2021 survey.
Over 60k signed petitions to urge Chubb and Travelers act to protect the Arctic Refuge
Dec. 1, 2022
Organizers delivered almost 70,000 petition signatures to both the CEO of Chubb Insurance, Evan Greenberg and CEO of Travelers Insurance, Alan Schnitzer. The petitions, which were delivered by indigenous leaders, students and local activists, call on Chubb and Travelers to join other insurance companies across the globe in committing to not insure oil and gas exploration in the Arctic Refuge.
Arch Capital Group Ltd responded to ongoing pressure from campaigners by ruling out insurance for the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). In the same week, AEGIS London also ruled out the controversial project as the project doesn’t meet their ESG policy. The total number of insurers ruling out EACOP now stands at 21.
A new protocol from the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) was supposed to set rigorous standards for how companies measure and disclose insured emissions. Instead it “opens the door for greenwashing and will allow insurers to continue business as usual in underwriting the expansion of the oil and gas industry,” according to the Insure Our Future campaign. NGOs will closely watch the protocol to set targets for reducing insured emissions which the NZIA will publish in January.
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