A group of climate activists has called on 30 insurance company CEOs to “immediately” stop underwriting new fossil fuel projects in the wake of a stark climate warning from UN scientists, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
Insure our Future, a global consortium of activists, said it had sent the letter dated Tuesday last week to companies including Munich Re Group, Zurich Insurance Group AG and AXA SA.
The six-page letter, signed by 23 climate groups, including non-governmental organizations, said the insurance industry had failed to do enough to meet the world’s climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Other demands included stopping insurance for new fossil fuel customers not aligned with the goal, and adopting binding targets to reduce insured emissions by July.
“Insurers, as society’s risk managers, have a special responsibility to act and the power to drive change: without insurance most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead and existing ones cannot continue to operate,” it said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week said that the “climate time bomb is ticking” and urged rich countries to cut emissions sooner, after a new assessment from scientists said there was little time to lose in tackling climate change.
While some insurers have tightened underwriting and investment policies to exclude some polluting industries from their business, the most stringent policies have focused primarily on coal rather than oil and gas.
“Numerous loopholes in policies and standards allow insurers to continue underwriting the expansion of fossil fuel production,” the letter said.
The Sunrise Project finance program director Peter Bosshard, one of the letter’s authors, said that climate-related resolutions were already on the agenda at the US insurers, and more could follow.
US insurers Chubb Ltd, the Hartford and Travelers are among companies facing climate-focused shareholder resolutions at upcoming annual general meetings.
“We are considering doing the same with Japanese insurers for next year, and also with the European insurers if they don’t get more serious,” Bosshard said.
Some industry executives have said that if they sever ties too quickly with polluting industries, unemployment would rise, and activists are too focused on stopping activities rather than transformation.
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS