Fossil fuel campaigners target Australian insurers

Campaigners in Australia are calling on the country’s insurance companies to divest from fossil fuels. They want Australia's listed major insurers to link climate change to profitability and to specify the amount they have lost on extreme weather payouts in recent years. Of the three big listed insurers in Australia, QBE is the only one known to underwrite fossil fuel projects, but the size of its exposure is not clear. Last year 15 insurance CEOs in the UK demanded urgent action on climate change shortly after Bank of England governor Mark Carney said it could pose a significant long-term financial risk to insurance companies. 

Insurance companies are shaping as the next battlefront in the local fossil fuels divestment fight.

Australia's big four banks were the main targets last year, but activist groups say insurance companies are as important as banks in divestment, and fossil fuel companies cannot operate without them.

Activists all want insurers to address climate and carbon in their annual reports more comprehensively. Credit: Simone De Peak

Julien Vincent, lead campaigner at Market Forces, clsaid the country's major insurers, and regulator APRA, have "their heads in the sand on climate change".

Divestment campaigners will try to put pressure on the insurance sector "by forcing the industry to have an honest, public conversation about the realities of climate change hurting their sector".