Amid the bustle of the Global Climate Action Summit last week in San Francisco, and while Waterkeeper Organizations were scrambling to prepare for Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas, Waterkeeper Alliance and partners launched a new campaign in the U.S. on divestment from the fossil fuel industry.
Elected leaders from around the world, indigenous representatives from the Ohlone to the Amazon and Africa, progressive businesses, and grassroots activists interlaced in convention halls and in the streets to push for bolder, faster action to combat climate change. Hundreds of affiliated events took place across the city that examined complicated facets of the climate struggle, including, among other things, the role of gender, oceans, and business in climate solutions. Within this buzz of climate action, the Insure our Future campaign was launched to target the U.S. insurance industry.
You can’t drive a car or buy a house without insurance. Likewise, without insurance, energy companies cannot build or operate destructive fossil fuel projects like coal-fired power plants, Keystone XL pipeline, oil drilling in the arctic, and LNG export facilities. Insurance coverage allows carbon-intensive projects to be built and operated, which locks us into dirty and expensive energy that fuels extreme weather and worsens public health.
To make matters worse, insurance companies invest customers’ premiums in fossil fuel companies. The 40 largest U.S. insurers hold over $450 billion in coal, oil, gas, and electric utility stocks and bonds.
Up until last week, not one U.S. insurance company had pledged to divest from fossil fuels and stop insuring risky fossil fuel projects. Yet international insurers have already hopped on the train to a safer future. Since 2015, 17 large international insurers have divested about $30 billion from coal companies, and six, including Allianz, Axa, Zurich, and Swiss Re, have stopped or limited insuring the coal industry.
The insurance industry is supposed to protect us from risk. Yet insurers are fueling dangerous climate change by perpetuating our dependence on fossil fuels, which is disastrous for fresh water supplies and the health of our oceans. That is why we are excited to work with our partners to demand that U.S. insurance companies ditch fossil fuels and scale up investments for clean energy companies and projects.
The campaign launch event last week featured Lemonade, a property and casualty underwriter, as the first U.S. insurance company to commit to not invest in fossil fuels. In a blog posted to their website, Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber acknowledged a false dichotomy: “the interests of our investors and our environment are not at loggerheads. Doing the right thing benefits our customers and our shareholders and our future.”
Waterkeeper Organizations around the U.S. are working to protect their watersheds from the impacts of fossil fuel proposals, and helping prepare and adapt their communities to withstand more floods, fires, droughts, and other climate-related catastrophes. Waterkeeper Alliance is excited to work with our partners on this effort, so stay tuned for more information about how you can help the Insure Our Future campaign steer investment into a cleaner, safer future.
From Insure Our Future — Insurance Industry by the Numbers
- $31 trillion: The estimated amount of funds under management by insurance companies at the end of 2014. After pension funds, the insurance industry is the world’s second largest investor.
- $450 billion: The amount of combined investments the 40 largest U.S. insurers hold in coal, oil, gas, and electric utilities.
- $5.9 trillion: The projected amount of additional investments needed in clean energy technologies over the next 25 years to transition the world to low carbon energy and meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accord.
- 1,281: Number of coal power plants currently planned or under construction globally.
- 0: Number of those coal plants that can be built and still keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius
- 17: The number of (mostly European) major insurance companies that have adopted coal divestment policies, resulting in the withdrawal of at least $30 billion from the coal sector.
- 0: number of major U.S. insurers who have committed to ending underwriting or investments in fossil fuel companies and projects.