The retreat from coal is not only gaining momentum but beginning to become a tsunami. Literally, TRILLIONS of dollars are being syphoned away from anything having to do with coal and there is nothing Donald Trump can do about this. Once again I’ll say, Coal is a dead man walking. With examples such as so many insurance companies divesting I wonder why others continue to have anything to do with coal investments or financing. Unfortunately, there are too many universities and banks that are still investing or financing coal projects. How smart is that????
“Insurance giant Allianz SE announced Friday it would stop providing coverage for individual coal-fired power plants and coal mines, part of its corporate retreat from fossil fuels.”
“The insurer, which manages about $2.4 trillion”
“Italy’s biggest insurer, Generali Group, announced plans to sell $2.5 billion worth of coal holdings by 2020 and invest $4.3 billion in “green” investments over the same time period (Climatewire, Feb. 22).”
“At least 15 insurance companies have withdrawn tens of billions of dollars from coal businesses since 2015”
Another big insurer backs away from coal
Insurance giant Allianz SE announced Friday it would stop providing coverage for individual coal-fired power plants and coal mines, part of its corporate retreat from fossil fuels.
The firm said it would continue to withdraw investments from the coal industry, and it pledged to set goals to cut financial ties from heavy-emitting sectors based on climate change.
“We’re going to the next step,” Oliver Bäte, the company CEO, said in a video. “We’re stopping to insure new coal-based projects and power plants.”
He added, “If we are not leading the charge on climate change who would otherwise do that?”
The Munich, Germany-headquartered firm is one of several European insurers to pull back from the coal market, which is waning under competition from low natural gas prices, renewables and the bite of climate regulations.
The insurer, which manages about $2.4 trillion, says it has not “financed coal-based business models” since 2015. The company has sold direct stakes in firms tied to coal and is selling off other investments, such as debt. “No new investments have been allowed since,” Allianz said in a statement.
A company spokeswoman said the new policy would affect about $60 million worth of policies and that it would be applied globally.
Italy’s biggest insurer, Generali Group, announced plans to sell $2.5 billion worth of coal holdings by 2020 and invest $4.3 billion in “green” investments over the same time period (Climatewire, Feb. 22).
At least 15 insurance companies have withdrawn tens of billions of dollars from coal businesses since 2015, based on a tally climate advocacy groups released in November.
“The coal industry is the number one driver of climate change, and building new coal plants is incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” Heffa Schuecking, director of Urgewald, a German environmental and human rights campaign group, said in a statement. “We welcome Allianz’s move as an important step towards making the coal industry uninsurable and uninvestable.”
Still, Allianz said it would take until 2040 to entirely phase out its coal investments and insurance coverage of that industry.
Regine Richter, a finance campaigner with Urgewald, said it was “significant” for the company, the world’s top insurer, to zero out its coal coverage. But, she added, “Allianz should however commit to a more ambitious sunset period than 2040.”
Separately, the company said it would sign on to the Science Based Targets initiative, an organization that presses companies to set their goals to cut emissions based on climate science, not arbitrary benchmarks.
Hundreds of blue-chip companies are signatories to the group (Climatewire, Sept. 18, 2017).
