Press release
Paris, October 19, 2022 – A few weeks before COP27, the Insure Our Future campaign (1) reveals the latest climate-related progress made by the world’s 30 largest insurers and reinsurers in its annual Insurance Scorecard study (2). While more and more insurers and reinsurers are taking a stand against oil and gas expansion, the French insurers AXA and SCOR have still not committed to stop covering new gas fields, which are incompatible with the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (3). AXA thus remains behind Allianz, which maintains its leading position, and SCOR moves behind Munich Re, which enters the top 10 thanks to its new sectoral policy (4). Reclaim Finance calls on AXA and SCOR, as founding members of the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), to join the fight against oil and gas expansion.
The Insurance Scorecard assesses and ranks the coal, oil and gas sector policies of the world’s 30 largest insurers and reinsurers. Of these, 25 now have coal policies (5) and 19 have an oil and gas policy (6). While 20 (re)insurers refuse to cover new coal plants and mines, only six exclude new oil and gas production projects from their insurance portfolios (7). Stopping new fossil fuel production projects is however an essential first step to limit global warming to 1.5°C according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) (8).
Peter Bosshard, international coordinator of Insure Our Future and lead author of the Insurance Scorecard: “Insurance is the Achilles heel of the fossil fuel industry and has the power to accelerate the transition to clean energy. All insurance companies must immediately align their businesses with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement and cease insuring new coal, oil and gas projects.”
This year, French players are falling behind their peers in the fight against oil and gas expansion:
Insurer AXA, despite being a founding member and chair of the NZIA, remains second overall behind Allianz (9). On the other hand, its oil and gas insurance policy, far less ambitious than those of its peers, places it in 7th position in the oil and gas sector (10) : AXA has only committed to stop covering new oil exploration projects and still refuses to exclude new gas production projects from its insurance portfolios;
The reinsurer SCOR has dropped out of the top 10 of the overall ranking and is now 11th (11) behind its competitor Munich Re (12). Its timid insurance policy on oil and gas announced last May places it in 14th position in the oil and gas sector: SCOR has only committed to no longer covering new oil production projects and also refuses to exclude new gas production projects from its (re)insurance portfolios (13).
Despite being founding members of the NZIA (14), AXA and SCOR are falling further and further behind their peers who are also members of the alliance: Munich Re, Swiss Re, Hannover Re, Allianz, Generali and Aviva have all announced that they will no longer cover new oil and gas fields (15). In order to meet their climate commitments and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in line with a 1.5°C trajectory, the two French companies must catch up and also commit to no longer covering new gas fields. Additional commitments such as ending insurance coverage to new oil and gas transportation infrastructure projects (16), including new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, would allow them to regain the climate leadership they had gained in 2017 (17).
Ariel Le Bourdonnec, Insurance Campaigner at Reclaim Finance: “Allianz and Munich Re, global leaders in insurance and reinsurance, indicated this year that they will not cover new oil and gas fields anymore. AXA and SCOR can no longer ignore these strong signals against oil and gas expansion. As founding members of NZIA, they must also set the example themselves and refuse to insure any new oil and gas fields.“