Climate groups urge IAIS to take action on insurers over climate crisis
More than 30 climate, environmental and consumer protection groups have called on the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) “to take action on the industry’s failure to address the climate crisis and its implications for the insurance sector”.
In a letter to the executive committee and secretariat of the IAIS ahead of its annual meeting (9-10 November 2023) in Tokyo, the groups urge the IAIS to take a precautionary approach to addressing environmental risk, support credible transition plans that put insurance corporations on pathways aligned with the 1.5°C global temperature rise limit, and steer the industry away from exacerbating climate risk.
The letter calls for the IAIS to exclude insurers that still underwrite or invest in new fossil fuel projects from receiving public support and ensure insurance supervisors mandate the use of climate science to assess its possible impacts rather than the “flawed prevailing economic models”.
According to the groups, the IAIS should scale up climate action and accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels to stop growing parts of the world being left without access to insurance.
Marika Kita, campaigner with Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, said: “The insurance industry first warned about the climate crisis 50 years ago but to this day – despite extreme weather events already causing hundreds of billions of losses a year – continues to support oil and gas expansion. The insurance sector should act as a firefighter to help protect us from climate disasters, not add fuel to the fire.”
Kita added: “The IAIS is the international standard-setter for the insurance industry, and has a responsibility to ensure that insurance underwriting aligns with climate science. It must steer the industry on a path that is in line with the 1.5°C temperature rise limit.”
The letter has been signed by groups from the US, Japan, Korea, the UK, Costa Rica and various European countries as well as international organisations including the Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Ekō, Oil Change International, Urgewald, ShareAction, Positive Money and WWF.
