Generali Insurance Asset Management (GIAM) finally adopted a first policy on coal and tar sands<\/span><\/a><\/u> in April 2022. GIAM is the largest subsidiary of Generali Investments, the asset management branch of Generali Group: GIAM represents about 80% of Generali Investments\u2019 \u20ac580 billion of assets under management.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The adoption of a Paris-aligned coal phase-out commitment for investment activities worldwide, including in Eastern Europe, must be praised. The policy adopts strict exclusion commitments on coal companies, based on their coal relative and absolute exposures as well as their coal power expansion plans. However, it could be further improved to fully align with climate science if the exclusion of coal developers also expanded to companies developing new coal mines and coal infrastructures and if exemptions were to be removed. But it is on oil and gas that everything remains to be done for GIAM to align with the imperative, drawn from the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports (see below), to stop opening new fossil fuel projects.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n This policy is almost similar to the one adopted last year by Generali Group<\/span><\/a><\/u> for its investment activities. It proves that asset managers can align with their parent companies when the latter adopt robust fossil fuels exclusion policy – in this case, on coal. It could inspire other asset managers such as Allianz Global Investors or PIMCO to align themselves with the policy taken at group level<\/a><\/u>.<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Here are the commitments from GIAM\u2019s policy (1):<\/p>\n<\/div> GIAM commits to reducing to zero the exposure to coal of all business lines by 2030 in European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n GIAM will exclude the following companies from its portfolio:<\/p>\n GIAM commits to strengthening the exclusion criteria and thresholds regularly to end all support to companies active in the coal sector by the above-mentioned dates.<\/p>\n<\/div> GIAM will not make new investments:<\/p>\n <\/i>THE POSITIVES<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/i>THE POSITIVES<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div> For the next steps, Generali Investments – GIAM\u2019s parent company – needs to improve the scope of this policy by extending it to all of its subsidiaries, since GIAM only represents 80% of Generali Investments\u2019 total assets. GIAM should also make its divestment policy systematic (4).<\/p>\n<\/div> Generali Insurance Asset Management scores in the Coal Policy Tool<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> This table presents the coal scores of Generali Insurance Asset Management based on five criteria of the Coal Policy Tool.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div> Reclaim Finance welcomes these long overdue commitments from GIAM. On coal, the new exclusions adopted by GIAM mark a stark improvement regarding the logic of its long-term strategy to reach zero coal exposure in its investment activities. However, by not applying a strict exclusion of coal developers, GIAM fails to integrate the group of asset managers excluding companies opening both new coal plants and new coal mines or infrastructures, such as AXA IM or Ostrum (Natixis IM)<\/span><\/a><\/u>. Moreover, its failure to adopt any strong criteria against oil and gas expansion, including in the most impactful sectors of unconventional oil and gas, means that GIAM will keep contributing to the development of projects that have no room in the remaining 1.5\u00b0C carbon budget. GIAM exposes itself to important financial risks. In its Sixth Assessment Report, in the Mitigation of climate change<\/a><\/u><\/span> part, the IPCC not only confirms what the IEA already said about the imperative to tend to no expansion, but also makes it clear that \u201climiting warming to 2\u00b0C or 1.5\u00b0C will strand fossil-related assets, including fossil infrastructure and unburned fossil fuel resources<\/em>\u201d. GIAM must get back to work.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> Here is below the updated scoring grid of our Coal Policy Tool<\/a><\/u> regarding GIAM and other main asset managers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Key points in the policy<\/h1><\/span>
On coal<\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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On tar sands<\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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Our analysis: a welcome policy, but still a long way to go<\/h1><\/span>
On coal: a strict, but not a best-in-class, policy<\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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On oil and gas: a timid policy where almost everything remains to be done<\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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