A new report exposes the complicity of global insurers in the climate crisis. Notably, it has revealed how five major insurance companies – Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich, and Intact – have invested to the tune of $6.5bn in the fossil fuel corporations wrecking the planet.
Insurance companies: investing in the climate crisis and genocide
The report was authored by the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign – which launched last month with a day of action. On Tuesday 25 March, the group targeted insurance offices nationwide.
Now, its new publication Ensuring Climate Crisis: The Insurance Industry and Fossil Fuel Giants highlights how these insurance companies, while often presenting a green image, continue to support and profit from the fossil fuel industry.
Key findings include:
- $6.5 billion invested in fossil fuels by Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich, and Intact.
- Insurance giants like Allianz and AXA prop up fossil fuel corporations responsible for 30% of global emissions since 1988.
- Aviva is the largest insurance investor in fossil fuels, with over $3.7 billion.
The report finds that insurers prop up the corporations most responsible for the climate emergency. They have done so by 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.
Insurers ‘making a killing from death and destruction’
By analysing data on insurance and investment activities, the report exposes these financial links between major insurers and fossil fuel companies. Significantly, it revealed the extent to which these institutions are invested in the continued exploitation of resources and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
The research shows that Aviva is the worst culprit in terms of investments, investing a total of $3.7bn in the 115 featured companies. This equated to 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. Of course, these projects continue to contribute to environmental degradation. On top of this, they exacerbate social injustices linked to war and colonialism.
Andrew Taylor from Boycott Bloody Insurance said:
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.
Monika Nielsen, the researcher from the campaign, added:
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.
BP: wrecking the planet, fueling genocide and colonialism
The report details the practices of twenty fossil fuel companies. It places this in the context of their ties with insurance companies.
One example is BP, a company the report finds AIG insures. BP is the 8th largest polluter in the world, contributing 2.19% of all global emissions.
Despite the company’s 2020 pledge to slash fossil fuel output and invest in renewables, BP has since betrayed these commitments. Instead, it has scaled back green energy projects and doubled 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 has reported, BP supplies the crude oil fuelling Israel’s war machine. Moreover, weeks into the genocide, Israel granted a gas exploration licence in occupied Palestinian waters. Underwritten by AIG, BP benefits from over £690m 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. This makes 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.
Featured image supplied
