Dear Mr. Buberl,
For almost seven years now, you have been at the head of one of the world’s largest insurers, which also claims to be one of the most engaged on environmental issues. Under your leadership, your group was one of the first to make commitments on coal and then on oil and gas. As an insurer and risk manager, AXA knows better than anyone else the growing climate risks that are impacting its activities, its clients, our society and our planet. In the face of this climate emergency, Reclaim Finance calls on you to show leadership, by strengthening AXA’s response to oil and gas expansion.
2022 was once again marked by the consequences of climate disruption and an intensification of climate disasters. For the second year in a row, these catastrophes cost your industry more than $100 billion (1). Your company itself indicates that climate risk is now the number one concern of experts surveyed in its AXA Future Risks Report 2022. In your words, it is urgent to “build consensus and act collectively”.
However, we are particularly concerned to hear AXA defending positions that are no longer based on science: your oil and gas policy suggests that a company still developing new oil and gas projects could be in transition. You yourself have repeatedly defended your support for new gas fields by referring to the European taxonomy. Yet upstream projects are not included in the taxonomy, and the inclusion of certain gas power plant projects in this text has been widely criticized by the scientists and experts involved.
In its Net Zero by 2050 scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has clearly projected a halt to the development of new oil and gas fields and new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. It recently reminded us that even the war in Ukraine does not call this conclusion into question and would not, in any case, justify the development of a new wave of fossil fuel infrastructure.
On April 27, you will present AXA Group’s exceptional economic results to your shareholders, despite the fact that the Group’s climate ambitions have been at a standstill since October 2021. We call on you to lead your industry, as you have done in the past, including by introducing a robust policy to oppose oil and gas expansion:
- For new oil and gas fields: commit to no longer cover these new projects by adding new gas fields to the list of projects that AXA excludes. AXA must also remove the exception made for new fields developed by companies in transition from its current policy. A company that has not made a commitment not to develop any new oil and gas fields cannot be considered “in transition”.
- For new midstream oil and gas projects: commit as soon as possible to no longer cover new transport and storage infrastructure, and in particular liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. The construction of this infrastructure contributes directly to the development of new oil and gas fields locking in greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.
- For coal in reinsurance treaties: commit as soon as possible to extend the measures already in place for coal to reinsurance treaties. It is important for AXA to commit to no longer cover the risks in insurance portfolios linked to companies still developing new mining, thermal power plant and coal infrastructure projects. A measure with limited economic impact for AXA, as it is limited to the reinsurance activities of AXA XL, representing about 3% of the AXA Group’s turnover (2).
Allianz, Swiss Re, Munich Re, Hannover Re, the biggest names in your industry have already committed to no longer cover new oil and gas fields as part of their net zero commitments. It seems important to us, in view of the climate leadership claimed by AXA, to align yourselves at least with this commitment.
Despite the recent departure of some of your peers from the NZIA, leaving room for individual rather than collective action, we hope that you will renew your ability to lead by example and engage your industry as a whole in the right direction. We therefore call on you to not only align yourself with the best practices of your peers but to go beyond them by announcing an additional commitment to no longer cover new liquefied natural gas terminals.
Mr. Buberl, we will attend the AGM on April 27 and count on you to reinforce AXA’s climate ambitions by announcing an end to your group’s support for oil and gas expansion.
We thank you for your attention and remain at your disposal to discuss your group’s future oil and gas policy.
Yours sincerely
Lucie Pinson, Founder and Director, Reclaim Finance