Greenpeace protest brings burning house to Baden-Baden in call to insurers on climate change

Fires blazed outside the Kongresshaus in Baden-Baden yesterday as Greenpeace activists staged a peaceful protest urging reinsurers to stop providing coverage to insurance companies financially linked to new coal projects.

The activists set fire to a model house and handed out leaflets detailing why they want reinsurers to make these changes.

Adam Pawloff, climate and energy campaigner, Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, told Baden-Baden Today: “We’ve taken Greta Thunberg’s statement that our house our collective home is on fire and have created a symbolic activity to show just that.

“The reinsurance industry insures the ongoing future of coal and other fossil fuels through reinsurance contracts and we are demanding that they put an end to that.”

Notable companies in the sector, including Talanx, Chubb and Nationale Nederlanden, have announced changes that tightened their underwriting policies to reduce reinsurance cover for coal-based risks in a bid to discourage the ongoing use of fossil fuels.

Greenpeace claimed that more than half of the global reinsurance market still provides cover to insurance companies financially linked to new coal projects. Greenpeace cited International Energy Agency (IEA) figures that show coal contributes 44 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions.

It said that according to Unfriend Coal, a global coalition of non-governmental organisations and social movements that is pressuring insurance companies to get out of the coal business, by mid-2018 seven reinsurance companies controlling 45 percent of global reinsurance premiums had reportedly divested some or all of their assets from coal.

However, Greenpeace said, the criteria for what these major carriers will or will not insure not only differ from each other, but also allow for the continued underwriting of certain coal risks, including in many cases new-build coal power plants and mines.

Pawloff said the response from delegates in Baden-Baden had been friendly. He said he welcomed steps taken by some in the industry to face up to the issue of coal but emphasised that more needs to be done.

“We’ve been engaging with the insurance and reinsurance industry for the last couple of years and we’ve seen quite a lot of progress, particularly in the European market,” said Pawloff.

“A number of primary insurers and a few reinsurers have come forward with coal exclusion policies. These are good first steps, but we need to be going further.
“Our demand is that they cease doing this business, and do not renew contracts with companies who want to run coal past 2030.”