Insurance Will No Longer Renew for Big CO2 Emitters

As part of its new climate policy, a major reinsurance company based in Zurich, Switzerland has decided to no longer cover the most carbon-intensive fossil-fuel producers, thus taking concrete action to tackle the risks climate change is posing.

From July next year, Swiss Re will no longer provide individual insurance cover for oil-and-gas companies responsible for the world’s 10% most carbon-intensive fossil-fuel production. The world’s largest reinsurer will also stop reinsuring, or directly investing in, new oil-and-gas field projects that receive the go-ahead from their parent companies after 2022.

Swiss Re aims at only having — in its oil-and-gas reinsurance portfolios — companies whose emissions target is net-zero by 2050. The reinsurer intends to take action in terms of its operations, meaning that an internal carbon levy will cover both its direct and indirect emissions. Incidentally, the levy fixed at $100 per ton of carbon dioxide will reach $200 by 2030.