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At the beginning of last year, several oil and gas projects were started in Norway, which are insured by Zurich Insurance and Swiss Re, according to a Greenpeace report. This is despite the fact that the two Swiss insurers are committed to the Paris climate targets.
New oil and gas production projects are now taboo, otherwise we will not achieve the Paris climate goals, as the International Energy Agency IAEA stated in no uncertain terms in 2021. However, this warning does not seem to have reached the market. In Norway alone, the largest oil-producing country in Europe, new projects to produce three billion tons of oil have been approved since the beginning of 2022.
Many are simply trying to profit and make a deal for as long as possible.
The projects are incompatible with the Paris climate agreement, writes the environmental organization Greenpeace in a report. “Many simply try to profit and do business for as long as possible,” says Peter Haberstich, a specialist in sustainable finance at Greenpeace. Insurers would look for loopholes in guidelines and in promises made. “It is important that everyone stops doing this immediately,” stressed Haberstich.
Insurers do not dispute participation
The Greenpeace documents show that a total of 69 international insurance groups insure companies that are carrying out new subsidized projects in Norway. Swiss Zurich Insurance and Swiss Re also appear on the lists.
Swiss Re does not support new oil and gas production projects that have been definitively decided after 2022.
The two insurance groups do not dispute their holdings at the request of SRF. For example, Swiss Re announced: “Swiss Re does not support any new oil and gas production projects that have been definitively decided after 2022. Furthermore, Swiss Re does not insure oil and gas companies, which are responsible for the 10 percent of the world’s most carbon-intensive oil and gas production.” The insurer would therefore no longer insure any new oil and gas production projects. In 2022, the year Greenpeace investigated, that was still possible.
It sounds similar at Zurich Insurance: “Zurich remains determined to support its customers in a just energy transition. The group does not insure new greenfield oil exploration projects unless there are convincing transition plans.” This means that if an oil or gas producer has a plan for becoming carbon neutral by 2050, Zurich Insurance will continue to work with him.
Zurich does not insure new greenfield oil exploration projects unless there are convincing transition plans.
It doesn’t work that way, as Greenpeace’s Peter Haberstich says. He accuses the insurance companies of putting profit above everything else: “Those who insure such energy projects also make them possible.”
In the USA, insurers are getting out of climate efforts
It is just the opposite in the USA. There, several insurance groups have left the insurer climate protection initiative “Net-Zero Insurance Alliance” NZIA convened by the UN. In the alliance, they commit to ambitious climate targets. A few days ago, Swiss Re announced that it was leaving the NZIA. Zurich, Munich Re and Hannover Re had already left a month earlier.
Those who insure such energy projects also make them possible.
Neither Swiss Re nor Zurich gave reasons for the step. However, Munich Re mentioned antitrust risks when it left. Republican-governed states have openly threatened companies with antitrust lawsuits if they don’t work with oil and gas companies.