Insurance Firms Say “No” to Polluting Projects

Three British insurance companies are joining the growing number of firms distancing themselves from a controversial crude oil pipeline project that could potentially have a negative impact on people, nature, and the climate.

“We are able to confirm that providing insurance for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, its construction, contractors, infrastructure, or operation is not within our risk appetite,” explains Alex Hindson, Chief Risk & Sustainability Officer at Argo Group, one of the three British insurance firms. “Therefore, we have not and will not provide insurance services associated with this project.”

With the latest three British insurance companies declining to underwrite the project – Argo Group, Axis Capital, and RSA Insurance Group Limited – a total of 11 (re)insurers decided to not provide insurance coverage for the EACOP project, thus curbing its progress since it requires international (re)insurers to go forward. Twenty banks and four export credit agencies have also refused to finance the pipeline project. A global petition against the project has gathered more than a million signatures as it threatens to displace tens of thousands of people in Uganda and Tanzania and poses a threat to livelihoods, local cultures, ecosystems, and wildlife. The #StopEACOP Coalition is leading the fight against the pipeline, and they now “call on other financial institutions and (re)insurers that are yet to distance themselves from EACOP to do so and seal the fate of this harmful project,” pleads the coordinator Omar Elmawi.