IA few days ago, Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer, leading figures of the climate movement, took part in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to ask for the stop of new gas projects , oil and coal, including the highly controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) developed by TotalEnergies.
These personalities recalled that there can be no cooperation with the fossil industry since it has undermined any significant climate action for more than fifty years. The WEF says it recognizes the urgent need to move away from a global economy based on fossil fuels. But, once again, the debate on the climate, as during the COP, is hijacked by the fossil companies present: TotalEnergies, Engie, BP, Shell, Chevron and Saudi Aramco. In this context, little can change.
Faced with such a blockage, other sectors of the economy have a decisive role to play. This is the case with insurance. Expert in risk management, the insurer is one of the financial cogs that has the ability to stop the expansion of fossil fuels, and to facilitate the acceleration of the energy transition while protecting communities and ensuring avoid devastating risks.
The central role of insurers in projects
Without insurance and reinsurance, most new fossil fuel projects cannot proceed and existing projects must be shut down. In recent years, the Insure Our Future campaign led by several international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social movements has grown in influence. The main European insurance and reinsurance companies have thus started to reduce their activities related to oil, gas and coal.
In 2022, 13 firms have restricted their involvement in the oil and gas sector, and 41 have adopted substantial restrictions on coal; they made these projects uninsurable, except those carried out in China. Although these results remain imperfect, they contrast with the prevailing immobility and constitute a powerful lever for action.
On January 16, in The world, Fabrice Domange, president of Marsh France, a branch of the largest insurance broker, gave his opinion in a forum, “Leveraging the interconnection of crises to maximize the impact of collective solutions”, on the interconnection of crises and the importance of concerted action to address inequality and the climate crisis. Marsh precisely connects developers and insurers, and insurance brokers play a critical—although often overlooked—role in bringing energy projects to fruition.
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