Insurers withdrawing cover from coal projects double in 2019

The number of insurers withdrawing cover for coal has more than doubled in 2019 as the industry’s retreat from the sector accelerates and spreads beyond Europe, the Unfriend Coal campaign revealed today in its third annual scorecard on insurance, coal and climate change.

Insuring Coal No More: The 2019 Scorecard on Insurance, Coal and Climate Change is published by 13 civil society organisations from 10 countries. It will be launched to an industry audience at the Insurance and Climate Risk conference in London, as the UN Climate Summit commences in Madrid.

Coal exit policies have been announced by 17 of the world’s biggest insurers controlling 46 percent of the reinsurance market and 9.5 percent of the primary insurance market. Most refuse to insure new mines and power plants, while industry leaders have ended cover for existing coal projects and the companies that operate them, and adopted similar policies for tar sands.

Action has escalated since international NGOs launched the Unfriend Coal campaign in 2017. The first three companies announced that they were withdrawing insurance for coal that year, followed by four in 2018, and a further 10 in 2019 – including the first US and Australian insurers.

Insurers have also divested coal from roughly $8.9 trillion of investments – over one-third (37 percent) of the industry’s global assets. To date, at least 35 companies have taken action, up from 15 companies with $4 trillion assets under management in 2017 and 19 with $6 trillion in 2018.

Coal is the biggest single source of carbon emissions. The climate science institute, Climate Analytics, calculates that holding global temperature rise to 1.5°C will require global coal combustion to peak by 2020, fall by 80 percent below 2010 levels over the next decade, and end before 2040. Yet companies continue to develop new mines and power plants.

Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, said: “The role of insurers is to manage society’s risks – it is their duty and in their own interest to help avoid climate breakdown. The industry’s retreat from coal is gathering pace as public pressure on the fossil fuel industry and its supporters grows. However, major US and Asian insurers continue to undermine international climate action by insuring and investing in coal projects. All responsible companies must make coal uninsurable by ending support for both new and existing mines and power plants, including the Adani Group’s destructive Carmichael coal mine in Australia.”

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, added: "Insurance companies are as culpable for the climate emergency as the fossil fuel industry. While they insure lives, health and property, they service a sector that is seemingly destroying all three. If they wanted to, insurers could strip fossil fuel firms of their social license and their access to finance for the benefit of people and planet.”

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