Tribune. Tuesday, October 26, will be held at the Palais Brongniart, in Paris, on Climate Finance Day, last meeting of the financial center of the capital on the climate before the end of the quinquennium and the COP26. All eyes are on AXA CEO Thomas Buberl, who has already indicated that he will adopt a new policy in the energy sector this year.
If it is a leader in the fight against climate change, the insurance giant, which is also leader of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, will lose its title if it does not commit to no longer ensure new oil and gas production projects.
AXA has indeed been a pioneer in climate action on several occasions.
In 2015, AXA was the first major investor in the world to restrict its investments in the coal industry. Under the leadership of Thomas Buberl, who took over at the head of the group in 2016, this leadership has only continued to assert itself.
In 2017, AXA was the first insurer to no longer insure new coal projects.
In 2019, the group adopted a comprehensive policy of phasing out coal and once again started a fundamental movement within the insurance sector.
Finally, this year AXA took the initiative to launch the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, an alliance of insurers committed to achieving carbon neutrality.
Except that getting out of the coal is not enough. As reaffirmed by the International Energy Agency (OUCH) in its World Energy Outlook, achieving carbon neutrality requires no longer opening any new oil and gas fields, and initiating a decline in hydrocarbon production. AXA will not remain a leader in climate matters if it does not respond to the first of all emergencies: to stop supporting the expansion of all fossil fuels so as not to further aggravate the situation and move away from the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 ° C.
Radio silence
AXA is today the second largest insurer in the world, and still ranks among the largest insurers in the oil and gas industry. The group is now lagging behind its international peers and other heavyweights in the Paris financial center. Despite their very minimalist policies, they have at least recognized the climate bomb represented by the development of shale gas and oil. And on the side of AXA? Radio silence. The insurer has not even followed up on an appeal from civil society concerning the liquefied natural gas import terminal that its client Gasunie intends to develop in Germany.
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