Insurers' climate alliance loses nearly half its members after more quit

Grupo Catalana Occidente SA

30/05/2023 14:16

By Tommy Wilkes
       LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - Three more insurance
companies including Tokio Marine have left a United
Nations-backed net-zero climate alliance, leaving the group with
about half the number of members it counted two months ago as
insurers take fright at U.S. political pressure. 
    Some Republican politicians have mounted a campaign against
financial institutions collaborating to try to curb carbon
emissions, and a group of Republican attorneys general have
turned their focus on insurers by accusing them of potentially
breaching antitrust laws in the United States. 
    Japanese insurer Tokio Marine  8766.T  is no longer listed
as a member on the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance's (NZIA) website.
A spokesperson for Tokio Marine was not immediately available
for comment outside of Japanese business hours.
    MS&AD Insurance Group  8725.T , another Japanese firm, said
in a statement on Monday it was leaving less than a year after
joining. It said it would "continue our journey to achieve
Net-Zero by 2050 with our stakeholders".
    Spain-based Catalana Occidente  GCO.MC  is also no longer on
the NZIA membership website. The company did not immediately
respond to a request seeking comment.
    A spokeswoman for the NZIA did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
    The NZIA, which was formed in 2019 to get insurers to commit
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their underwriting
portfolios to a net-zero level by 2050, is now down to 17
members, according to its website, against the 28 it had two
weeks ago and 30 in late March. 
    Legal experts say it would be hard to make a case against
insurers on antitrust grounds, but cautious international
insurers are worried about being sucked into a tussle with U.S.
Republicans.
    A handful have left since late March but that turned into a
mass exodus last week when the NZIA lost at least eight members
including Spain's Mapfre  MAP.MC , France's AXA  AXAF.PA  -
which chaired the alliance - and Japan's SOMPO  8630.T .
    The remaining members of the NZIA, which include Britain's
Aviva  AV.L , Italy's Generali  GASI.MI  and France's Credit
Agricole Assurances, are set to hold more calls this week to
decide whether and how the alliance can continue given so many
members have quit, sources familiar with the discussions say. 
    The NZIA is one of several industry climate alliances that
exist under the U.N-backed Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net
Zero (GFANZ) umbrella group. GFANZ was launched in 2021 ahead of
the U.N. climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow.
    A spokesperson for GFANZ on Friday said "political attacks"
on insurers were damaging insurers' independent efforts to price
climate risk.

 (Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
 ((thomas.wilkes@tr.com; +44 (0) 7769 955711;))