Risk managers urged to engage with environmental NGOs

European risk managers and their corporate leadership have been urged to engage with NGOs campaigning to drive the fight against climate change and not regard them as adversaries, at Commercial Risk Europe’s ‘ESG at the heart of risk management’ conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Lindsay Keenan, European coordinator at Insure Our Future, a global network of about 25 NGOs dedicated to persuading the international insurance sector to stop covering the fossil fuel industry, made his call during the opening keynote presentation at the event held in partnership with Belgian risk management association Belrim and Dutch association Narim.

Keenan reported significant recent progress in the group’s efforts to persuade insurers and reinsurers to pull capacity from the fossil fuel sector, particularly among the leading reinsurance groups such as Munich Re, Swiss Re and Hannover Re, which have introduced oil and gas exclusion policies.

One of Insure Our Future’s main activities is the production of an annual scorecard that ranks and discloses the fossil fuel policies of leading insurers and reinsurers. But Keenan stressed during his presentation that the goal of Insure Our Future is not merely to name and shame those carriers that refuse to change strategy but to work with the industry to achieve positive results for all.

The environmental campaigner told the risk managers, insurers, brokers and other service providers in the room that businesses need to understand activists and “engage positively” with NGOs to take steps forward in the increasingly urgent battle against global warming.

Keenan said businesses should work proactively with NGOs and work in a more unified manner for the benefit of all. This would, of course, bring reputational benefits.

“People are concerned based on the facts and the lack of political and business action… read the NGOs’ briefings, get in touch – talk, listen, understand, cooperate,” said Keenan.

He said delegates should understand that NGOs and activists also have their job to do and are busy doing it. He warned delegates to be aware of “incumbent industry inertia, power and disinformation campaigns”, which are difficult to identify and can be heavily funded.

Much of the discussion during the following panel debate showed how complicated this whole area can be for corporates attempting to “do the right thing”.

In many cases, there is competition between fighting climate change, preventing pollution and maintaining biodiversity.

“Be aware of overlapping crises: climate, oceans, plastics, biodiversity, human rights, indigenous rights, wars. It’s not one or the other, it is all at once. Yes that’s a lot!” said Keenan.

Carl Leeman, chief risk officer at Belgian-based global logistics firm Katoen Natie, said his firm engages positively with NGOs when and where needed in areas such as plastic granules. This can lead to good results but is not always possible in parts of the world with more aggressive legal systems, said the former Belrim president.

“Yes, we engage with NGOs on different levels – sometimes for the good and sometimes for the worse. In our case, it’s mainly in relation to plastic granules. In some parts of the world it’s very flexible and positive, but in other parts of the world it’s more of a fight and companies feel they can’t clean up because it would then be seen as an admission of liability even if there was no liability,” explained Leeman.