Our best insurance is to keep fossil fuels in the ground

Insurance companies have a responsibility to immediately stop insuring fossil fuel expansion. Except for a few laggards, most insurers have stopped insuring new coal projects under pressure from the Insure Our Future campaign. However, contradicting their own climate commitments, most insurers continue to underwrite the expansion of the oil and gas industry.

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Number of companies with fossil fuel exclusion policies, by sector

Insurers, as society’s risk managers, should take responsibility to actively support global action to avoid climate breakdown, and drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. Without insurance most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead and existing ones must close.

Click here to view a detailed document on insurance company fossil fuel underwriting policies

Oil & Gas: 18

18 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for new oil and gas projects

Coal: 45

45 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for coal projects

Tar Sands: 26

26 companies have committed to end or restrict underwriting for tar sands projects

Insurers need to stop supporting fossil fuel expansion

Insure Our Future calls on all insurers to immediately stop insuring new fossil fuel projects, and to phase out existing coal, oil and gas insurance in line with a 1.5°C pathway.

Prominent voices from the public and private sector agree:

Reducing exposure to Oil & Gas should be the next environmental objective for insurers… and could help unlock an additional ‘green premium’ for the sector.

Société Générale

There are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway [Net-Zero to 2050] and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required.

International Energy Agency's Net Zero by 2050 report, May 2021

We need net zero commitments to cover your underwriting portfolios, and this should include the underwriting of coal - and all fossil fuels.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the Insurance Development Forum

I encourage insurers to only underwrite those portfolios that are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

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We have 7 demands to the insurance industry:

Immediately cease insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.

Immediately stop insuring ay new customers from the fossil fuel sector which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C pathway, and stop offering any insurance services which support the expansion of coal, oil and gas production even among existing customers. By the end of 2025, completely phase out all insurance services for existing fossil fuel company customers which have not published such a transition plan.

Immediately divest all assets, including assets managed for third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C scale up investments in a just, equitable, and rapid global transition to a clean energy economy.

Read all 7 demands

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Blog Letter Press Release Publication Go to latest

April 15, 2024

ShareAction Report: Insurance’s triple whammy threatens the survival of people and planet

London, 15 April 2024 – A major investigation into the world’s 65 largest insurance companies from the responsible investment charity ShareAction, released 11 April 2024, shows that both people and planet face the triple whammy from insurance companies underwriting and investing in projects that are increasing global warming, damaging the natural environment and failing to …

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April 12, 2024

New Finance Watch report clarifies ingredients for impactful transition plans for insurers

Brussels, 12 April 2024 – A new report from Finance Watch outlines the steps that must be taken to ensure effective implementation of mandatory transition plans for insurance companies as tools to support transition and manage the related risks. It outlines the urgent need for supervised “prudential” transition plans, pointing to the financial instability that …

April 9, 2024

Campaigners demand ‘polluters pay’ as insurance industry meet for inaugural sustainability summit

Today, as the insurance industry convenes for the first Global Sustainable Insurance Summit in Los Angeles, the 32 campaign groups of the Insure Our Future network have sent a letter to the world’s leading fossil fuel insurers, detailing how they can accelerate the transition to a clean and just energy economy. Demands in the letter …