ESG Watch: Insurers flex muscles ahead of COP27 by refusing to finance oil and gas

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% :Lloyds Banking Group (no relation to Lloyd's of London, the insurance market) has become the first UK bank to say that it will no longer directly fund oil and gas companies, except if they want to borrow money for "viable projects into renewable energies and transition technologies", and if they have credible net zero transition plans in place.
51% : There has been less pressure for firms to move away from oil and gas, which, in addition, provide much bigger revenue streams than coal.
51% : Many communities say that their voice is ignored when new projects are planned, even though the United Nations recognised that developers should secure the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of impacted communities.
50% : But despite progress on coal, until recently there was little momentum on oil and gas.
50% : "We think that as they now begin starting to reduce insurance cover to the oil and gas industry, insurers will also have as important an impact as they are having on coal."
44% : "Consequently, coal companies are finding it more difficult and expensive to find insurance, with many reportedly facing rate increases of as much as 40%.
42% : "Although the science is clear that we need to move away from oil and gas as well as coal, oil - and particularly gas - has still had a social license that coal no longer has," Brossard explains.
42% : Meanwhile, Axis Capital became the first North American reinsurer to say it would not underwrite energy, mining and other projects that do not have the backing of local indigenous communities.

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