Europe’s greatest insurer Allianz plans to take a more durable line on insuring the oil and gasoline trade as a part of efforts to align its underwriting insurance policies with the world’s local weather aim, the corporate stated on Friday.
The transfer is the newest by a significant insurer to curtail insurance coverage to the power sector, a number one driver of greenhouse gasoline emissions, and comes as scientists warn of a quickly closing window to restrict the worst results of world warming.
It follows a report from the Worldwide Power Company final yr which stated no extra funding was wanted in new oil and gasoline fields if the goal was to be met.
With stress rising to speed up company efforts to rein in emissions, Allianz stated from the beginning of 2023, it might now not difficulty new property and casualty insurance coverage to fund new oil and gasoline initiatives, and cease renewing current contracts from July 2023.
The brand new exclusions would cowl exploration and growth of latest oil and gasoline fields; building of latest mid-stream oil infrastructure; building of latest oil energy crops; and people linked to initiatives within the Arctic, Antarctic or coal-bed methane, extra-heavy oil and oil sands, in addition to ultra-deep sea fields.
“With these new pointers, Allianz is strengthening its promise to contribute to an orderly decarbonisation of the economic system,” stated Allianz board member Günther Thallinger.
As of January 2025, Allianz stated it might solely insure oil and gasoline corporations which had been on a science-based pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, together with the main oil corporations answerable for the lion’s share of emissions.
Beginning on the similar time, Allianz additionally stated it might present no insurance coverage, facultative reinsurance, or reinsurance for a single danger or outlined bundle of dangers, or funding to corporations which get greater than 10% of their income from oil sands, after beforehand setting the brink at 20%.
NGO Insure our Future stated it welcomed the transfer by Allianz, “which raises the bar for the insurance coverage trade” and referred to as on others within the sector to comply with swimsuit.
Allianz is the tenth main insurance coverage firm to undertake oil and gasoline restrictions, it stated, and there was “actual momentum now for all insurance coverage corporations to undertake oil and gasoline insurance policies that align with the local weather science.”
Amongst others to have tightened their insurance policies in latest months are Swiss Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, which stated it March it might now not insure most new oil and gasoline initiatives.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; modifying by Jane Merriman)
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