A new report exposes the complicity of global insurers in the climate crisis by insuring and investing in fossil fuel companies.
Key findings include $6.5 billion invested in fossil fuels by Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich, and Intact. Blood money fuelling climate collapse; Insurance giants like Allianz and AXA prop up fossil fuel corporations responsible for 30% of global emissions since 1988; and Aviva is the largest insurance investor in fossil fuels, with over $3.7 billion.
The report, authored by the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign – which launched last month with a day of action that saw insurance offices targeted nationwide – highlights how these insurance companies, while often presenting a green image, continue to support and profit from the fossil fuel industry.
Andrew Taylor from Boycott Bloody Insurance said that “The report’s findings collectively demonstrate the urgent need for greater scrutiny and action to address the role of insurance companies in driving the climate crisis. One example is Aviva, who are investing billions in key polluters like BP and Chevron whilst insuring six different fossil fuel firms. These insurers are making a killing from death and destruction all over the world.”
Entitled “Ensuring climate crisis: the insurance industry and fossil fuel giants”, the report finds that insurers prop up the corporations most responsible for the climate emergency, underwriting every area of fossil fuel business: extraction, construction, transport, processing, assets and more. Insurers then compound this support by investing billions of dollars in the fossil fuel industry each year.
By analysing data on insurance and investment activities, the report exposes these financial links between major insurers and fossil fuel companies, revealing the extent to which these institutions are invested in the continued exploitation of resources and the devastating impacts of climate change.
Looking into the investments of five insurers – Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich and Intact – it finds that these insurers invest cumulatively $6.5 billion in 115 fossil fuel companies.
These companies are responsible for nearly a third of all emissions occurring since the industrial revolution.
The research shows that Aviva is the worst culprit in terms of investments, investing a total of $3.7 billion in the 115 featured companies – almost a billion dollars more than all of the other insurers combined. The report also details the complicity of insurance giants in enabling the expansion of fossil fuel projects, contributing to environmental degradation, and exacerbating social injustices linked to war and colonialism.
Monika Nielsen, the researcher from the campaign, added that “in the midst of a climate emergency, insurers claim to provide a backstop against risk. But they are withdrawing support from climate-affected communities while underwriting fossil fuel expansion, exacerbating the climate crisis and threatening their own business, not to mention millions of lives.”
The practices of twenty fossil fuel companies are profiled in detail in the report, alongside details of their ties with insurers.
One example is BP, a company the report finds is insured by AIG. BP is the 8th largest polluter in the world, contributing 2.19% of all global emissions. Despite their 2020 pledge to slash fossil fuel output and invest in renewables, BP has since betrayed these commitments — scaling back green energy projects and doubling down on oil and gas, increasing investments in this area by 20%. From BP’s history of colonial exploitation in Iran to 2010’s Deepwater Horizon spill, the report traces BP’s role in the climate crisis and, now, the genocide in Gaza. As Energy Embargo for Palestine have reported, BP supplies the crude oil fuelling Israel’s war machine and, weeks into the genocide, were granted a gas exploration licence in occupied Palestinian waters by the Israeli Ministry of Energy. Underwritten by AIG, BP benefits from over £690 million in investments from Aviva, Allianz, and AXA as of February 2025.
The analysis in the report also indicates a lack of transparency and accountability in the insurance sector regarding climate-related risks and investment strategies, making it difficult for consumers and stakeholders to assess the true environmental and social impact of these companies.
In exposing the role of the insurance industry in the climate crisis – as well as previous reports highlighting insurers’ complicity in Israel’s genocide and the controversial weapons industry – the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign aims to support local groups in enforcing coordinated organisational boycotts of complicit insurers.
*Information supplied by Boycott Bloody Insurance.
(Photos: Pixabay)
.jpg)
