Post by account_disabled on Feb 21, 2024 23:59:02 GMT -6
Giant Australian insurer Suncorp revealed on Friday that it had already stopped insuring, underwriting or investing directly in new oil and gas projects and will end all financing or insurance of that industry by 2025, adding to the current ban on the group to support new thermal coal projects. Absolutely all direct investments in the oil and gas sector will end by 2040, the company said in a report. The announcement puts the company at odds with the advice of the government's Covid advisory commission, which has recommended that Australia's economic recovery from the pandemic should focus on gas. Suncorp said the move built on its commitment last year to end any support for thermal coal projects. Committed to the change to renewable energies In company guidance, Suncorp's external investment managers were asked to apply a hidden carbon price as they look for investment opportunities "to manage the risk of stranded assets as we transition to a net-zero emissions economy." . At the end of June, the company said fossil fuel extraction and generation made up less than 0.1% of its general insurance business. Between its insurance and shareholder investment assets, the exposure was less than 0.5%, and it was less than 1.5% of all investments it managed. Suncorp will continue to underwrite, lend and invest in companies whose business is clearly consistent with the transition to a zero-carbon economy by 2050. Report Current investments in low-carbon industries stood at $236 million at the end of June, the company said. The current panorama Insurance companies globally are introducing internal guidelines that restrict their exposure to fossil fuels.
At least four insurers of Australia's controversial Adani coal mine have pulled out of the project. In 2019 Suncorp said it would not finance or underwrite new thermal coal mines and power plants and would not underwrite existing thermal coal projects after 2025. Campaign group Market Forces said Suncorp had told it the company had already started offloading shares in oil and gas companies. Market Forces activist Pablo Brait said Suncorp's announcement still left "significant gaps" because it did not refer to oil pipelines or gas power plants. However he said it was "a big step Bulgaria Mobile Number List forward" and put the company ahead of many other insurers around the world in moving away from fossil fuels. Suncorp has acknowledged that an expansion in oil and gas production will undermine the Paris Agreement on climate change and worsen the floods, wildfires, droughts and storms that are hitting its profits. With this new policy, Suncorp has sent a clear message to the federal government that it will not be part of any expansion of gas production that pollutes. brait Market Forces said QBE was now the only major Australian-based insurer still supporting oil and gas.
QBE must stop undermining efforts to control the climate crisis and join Suncorp and IAG in eliminating oil and gas exposure. With global warming and extreme weather affecting insurance company profits, it makes no sense for QBE to continue supporting polluting industries. The QBE group's energy policy says it will continue to support oil and gas because it could complement renewable energy in power grids and was an important fuel in the world's transition from burning coal to electricity. A QBE spokesperson said the company supported the goals of the Paris climate agreement and was implementing the recommendations of the International Financial Security Council's working group on climate-related financial disclosures, a project chaired by Michael Bloomberg that encourages financial institutions and companies to disclose their exposure to climate change risks. QBE has already stopped investing directly in thermal coal and has committed to phasing out all direct insurance services for all thermal coal customers by January 1, 2030 at the latest. We have also committed to establishing metrics and targets to measure and monitor other climate-related risks and opportunities this year. These will be published in our 2020 annual report.