Allianz has tightened its exclusion criteria on coal. The course remains the same, namely a complete exit of coal from its investment and non-life insurance portfolios by 2040.

On the investment side

Allianz has aligned with AXA and announced that it will not invest in companies planning more than 300 MW of new coal-fired power generation capacity – down from 500 MW previously.

Allianz retains the 30% exclusion threshold, but indicates that companies that will make at least 25% of their revenues from coal mining or produce at least 25% of their power from coal will no longer benefit from investments after December 31, 2022.

On the insurance side

Until now, Allianz only had exclusionary measures relating to new or existing projects. Allianz has announced that it will not renew, after 31 December 2022, non-life insurance contracts for companies that :

  • derive more than 25% of their revenues from coal mining and produce more than 50 MT of coal per year.
  • generate more than 25% of their electricity production from coal and have more than 5 GW of installed coal-fired electricity generating capacity.

The combination of a relative and an absolute criterion makes the policy rather opaque and makes it difficult to assess its impact. One thing is certain, Allianz does not exclude from its investments developers of new mines and coal infrastructure nor does it exclude any coal developers from its insurance services.

Allianz maintains its international coal exit target of 2040 and once again misses the opportunity to complete its commitment to an intermediate exit date for European and OECD countries. The aim is to spare the ultra-conservative and pro-coal positions of certain Bavarian politicians. But RWE and Uniper will not escape the exclusion thresholds of 30% today, 25% at the end of 2022 and 15% by 2025.

Conclusion: for once, Allianz is not going beyond AXA’s latest announcements but is announcing much less ambitious measures than those taken by the French insurer last November. The policy has obvious shortcomings. However, Allianz stands out from the majority of other international insurers.