The insurance industry found itself in the spotlight last week as a Global Week of Action blossomed across the world. From February 27th to March 3rd 2024, a wave of protests, both online and in the streets, swept through the doors of insurance giants, demanding accountability over their support for polluters and decisive action on climate change.
Never before have these companies faced such pressure to clean their act up and insure our future, not fossil fuels. The Week of Action saw hundreds of thousands of people participating in online campaigns, while thousands more engaged in creative protests across 31 countries, spanning 5 continents. In total, over 100 events occurred worldwide, making it the largest ever coordinated campaign aimed at persuading the insurance industry to do the right thing.
The resounding message echoed by this global movement was clear: insurers can no longer hide their dirty deals with fossil fuel companies. As awareness grows around the crucial role insurers must play in solving the climate crisis, boardrooms and corner offices are abuzz with serious discussions about continued insurance coverage for polluting projects.
Coal Action Network combined forces with Extinction Rebellion, Stop EACOP and Tipping Point to hold the City of London to account. Here are the top picks from the Global Week of Action:
The week of action was opened on 27th February with sit-ins at 5 offices: Tokio Marine, Probitas, Talbot, Travellers and Zurich. Activists held banners reading “Don’t Insure EACOP” and “Don’t Insure West Cumbria Coal”.
Protesters joined arms around the whole of the iconic Lloyd’s of London building. The human chain lasted many hours, supported by beats from the samba band and performance from the ‘Discobedience’ dance group. There were speeches by Cumbrian activists and our own Will Attenborough from Coal Action Network.
Groups of friendly creatives, including Clowns and Crude Oil Mechanicals, visited the favourite watering holes of City workers at the Leadenhall Market, engaging insurance workers in discussion about the dangers of insuring new oil, coal and gas. Accompanied by the samba band, they gave out ‘Insure Our Future’ branded coasters.
A coalition of 12 climate justice groups came together in a moment of solidarity with the people of Palestine. A border wall was erected in front of the AXA building in London, to highlight the company’s continued investment in Israeli banks that fund an apartheid system and occupation of the West Bank. The coalition also demanded that AXA, as the 6th biggest fossil fuel insurer in the world, stops insuring all new oil, gas and coal expansion.
🔥 From Glasgow to Manchester, Birmingham to Brighton – local groups across the UK took to the streets to hold big insurers to account; including Zurich, Hiscox, Tokio Marine, AIG, Chubb, M S Amlin, QBE and AXA.
🌪️ Braving wild weather with courage and creativity actions included blockades, rallies, marches, occupations, letters, outreach and street theatre!
In Manchester, northern activists from a variety of climate action groups came together for a rally.
In Bristol rebels and Just Stop Oil activists held the roof of Tokio Marine overnight for 30hrs!
Activists from North East & Cumbria met at the AXA Insurance office in Middlesbrough with a coffin and banners for a die in with shrouds. Offices of AIG in Glasgow were occupied while a 100 others marched with Oil Slick performers, a bagpiper, and a huge "carbon bomb" to the Hiscox office nearby.
The Insurance Global Week of Action served as a wake-up call for an industry that has long operated in the shadows. Today, more people than ever before are acutely aware of the pivotal role insurers must play in transitioning towards a safe and healthy future. The global outcry has made it impossible for insurance companies to turn a blind eye to the mounting damage to our communities and our planet, caused by their enabling of polluters and new fossil fuels.
As the dust settles from this unprecedented mobilization, one thing is certain: the insurance industry can no longer afford to ignore the demands of a global movement that is determined to persuade them to do the right thing: insure our future, not fossil fuels.
Immediately cease insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects and the companies developing them.
Immediately adopt robust policies to ensure that clients fully respect all human rights, including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of impacted communities.
Play an active role in the just transition by increasing support to clean energy projects by, and for, communities most impacted by climate change and facing energy access crisis.
We’re thrilled to announce that after months of campaigning, five more major insurance companies have announced they will not support the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)!
This is a huge win for communities all over the world fighting fossil fuel pollution.
With your support, we’ve kept the pressure up on companies at the controversial insurance marketplace, Lloyd’s of London. As a result, 5 of those companies – SiriusPoint, Riverstone International, Enstar Group, Blenheim and SA Meacock – all confirmed to us last week that they would have nothing to do with EACOP.
That brings the total to 28 global insurers now distancing themselves from the pipeline.
But we’re not stopping there. We’re going to ramp up pressure on the big insurers who are still choosing short-term profits over a safe future for our loved ones.
With your help, we can persuade major corporations AIG, Tokio Marine and Hiscox, to rule out involvement in EACOP.
From 26th Feb to 3rd March, we will be taking part in a Global Week of Action – with citizens from Africa to Latin America getting out on the streets and telling insurance companies to protect our future, not fossil fuels.
Sign up here to find exciting events near you.
The Global Week of Action is a perfect opportunity for us to win more victories in the fight against EACOP. Young people in Uganda and Tanzania have been bravely taking the lead, protecting their communities from exploitation and rising temperatures. Alongside Insure our Future and StopEACOP, Coal Action Network is standing in solidarity with them, holding insurance companies to account for their involvement in a dirty project that would endanger local people, and harm vital ecosystems.
EACOP is majority-owned (62%) by French oil giant Total, with the rest of the project owned by the state oil companies of China, Uganda and Tanzania.
But, the pipeline has struggled to get insurance and the $3bn loan it needs, causing construction to be delayed by over 4 years. Uganda’s Energy Minister has even said that, due to campaigners’ efforts, securing insurance has been the biggest challenge to the pipeline’s construction. And we’ve convinced 27 major banks to recoil from the project.
But we’re not stopping yet. Total and the Ugandan government are hoping China will step in and lend them the billions they need. Their deadline is April. If we can convince enough insurers to step away from EACOP by then, we will show the Chinese banks that the pipeline is just too risky to touch.
That’s why we will make our voices heard loud and clear on EACOP during the Global Week of Action.
On Friday September 15th, as insurers and banks faced a wave of national protest, Coal Action Network announced that five insurers have given guarantees that they will not provide cover for the planned controversial West Cumbria Coal Mine.
The insurers that have ruled out underwriting the mine are AEGIS Managing Agency, Argenta Syndicate Management, Argo, Hannover Re and Talanx. These are the first financial institutions to rule out any involvement with the project, and the win represents a new phase in the campaign to stop the project from going ahead.
Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels on September 15-17th saw half a million people joining protests across the globe to call for a just transition away from coal, oil and gas in history, making it the largest climate mobilisation since the start of the pandemic. Over 400 actions, marches, rallies, and events took place around the world, coordinated by more than 780 endorsing organisations with millions of participants taking part. In the UK Protests took place in London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, York, Wrexham, Cardiff, Shrewsbury and Croydon. Hundreds of campaigners from Extinction Rebellion, Mothers Rebellion and Coal Action Network took to the streets assembling with banners and placards, at the doors of financial institutions, yet to rule out supporting the proposed mine.
They were joined by Buddhist and Quaker groups and other members of the local community. Some groups took part in theatrical actions, dressing as canaries to draw the link between the birds used in mines and the toxicity this mine will bring, while others held silent vigils.
These actions at Probitas, AXA XL, Chubb, Hiscox, Travelers, Chubb, Markel, CNA Hardy, and QBE Insurers as well as HSBC bank set out to raise awareness of the issue, by talking to passers by and staff, delivering letters to the insurers at and putting up blue plaques to publicly criticise these financial institutions and make it clear the this is No Time For A Coal Mine.
Andrew Taylor from Coal Action Network said: “The British government has ignored the pressure from people across the UK who are calling for them to stop the climate-wrecking West Cumbria coal mine, so today people have taken to the streets to demand that insurers and banks, including HSBC, turn their backs on this disastrous fossil fuel project. Four insurers stating that they won’t be involved is just the beginning.”
West Cumbria Mining Ltd wants to extract 2.78 million tonnes of coking coal annually from what would be the UK's first new underground coal mine in 30 years. The project has faced fierce public opposition with over 100k people joining the campaign and legal challenges as campaigners believe it goes against the government’s legally-binding net zero emissions target.
Claude Fourcroy, a spokesperson for Money Rebellion who supported the national day of action said: “The West Cumbria mine is incompatible with the UK’s climate commitments and will fuel climate breakdown. The City of London needs to stop funding and insuring new fossil fuels now.”
On 20th of November 2023 members of Coal Action Network, StopEACOP UK and Extinction Rebellion held a protest against Sinosure – a Chinese-state owned insurance company with ties to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The global day of action saw protests in London alongside those in Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Washington DC.
If built, EACOP, majority-owned by French oil company Total, would be the longest heated oil pipeline in the world. However, it has so far been blocked from construction. The project has faced difficulties raising finance and getting insurance after sustained campaigning efforts resulted in numerous banks and insurers committing to rule it out. This is why the Ugandan government has, in an act of desperation, now turned to Chinese institutions to prop it up.
Today’s global actions focused specifically on the state-owned China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim), and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Sinosure is said to be in advanced talks with the Ugandan government about providing credit for the project.
In London, protesters dressed in iconic Total red boiler suits and held banners saying “Solidarity with East Africa” and “Sinosure drop EACOP”. The group protested for an hour and handed in a petition signed by thousands of directly impacted citizens opposed to the planned 1443 km pipeline. They were met with two police vans and eight police officers blocking the main door to the Sinosure building at 85 Gresham Street, London. This made for a ratio of two or more police officers per protester. Meanwhile, in Uganda seven activists were arrested for holding an anti-EACOP banner.
Clearly, banks and insurers are afraid of people-power, and are trying to push carbon bomb projects through at the cost of human freedom and natural ecosystems.
However, activists see a golden opportunity to delay and ultimately stop EACOP. According to recent reports, 100km of the pipeline has been produced by Chinese manufacturers and is being shipped to Tanzania, while wells are being drilled in Kingfisher and Tillenga oil fields in Uganda. But, EACOP cannot get its crucial funding without Sinosure’s support, who are expected to make a decision by April 2024 after repeated delays.
The powerful work of campaigners and frontline communities has stopped EACOP in its tracks time and again. As we approach the New Year, the movement is ready to end this project for good and amplify the African voices calling for green jobs and a safe future.
On 18th October dozens of protesters staged a sit-in occupation of the plush City of London offices of ten Lloyd's of London insurers demanding they rule out insuring the proposed West Cumbria coal mine and East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
In collaboration with Fossil Free London’s “Oil Money Out” and standing in solidarity with South African activists in Johannesburg, protesters gathered first at Standard Bank then marched waving banners saying “Don't Insure EACOP' and “Don't Insure West Cumbria Mine” to three high profile buildings including the “Walkie Talkie”.
In a simultaneous action others entered the office foyers of Talbot, Chaucer, Ascot, Markel, Allied World, CNA Hardy, Tokio Marine Kiln, and Sirius International and Lancashire Syndicates and refused to leave.
Community members from Cumbria and Uganda joined the protest, sharing the united call to insurers and banks to stop underwriting deadly fossil fuel projects. The West Cumbria Mine will break the UK government’s legally-binding net zero emissions target and the massive 1443 km East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline will wreak havoc on communities, jeopardise ecosystems and water supplies and eliminate the possibility of Earth remaining habitable. There can be no new fossil fuels anywhere if global heating is to remain under 1.5C. Neither project will be able to go ahead without financial backing.
The protesters were joined by Patience Nabukalu, a youth activist from Fridays for Future Uganda who said:
“We have gathered here today to demand that insurers cut ties with the EACOP. By supporting this deadly fossil fuel project they undermine any climate commitments they have made. People in Uganda are facing human rights violations in the name of this project. This has to end.”
Insurers from Lloyd’s of London have come under increasing pressure to rule out offering insurance to both the West Cumbria coal mine and EACOP, facing protests at offices across the UK with hundreds of students entering the job market refusing to work for them.
Claude Fourcroy, a spokesperson for Money Rebellion said: “We are calling on all the banks and insurers behind the West Cumbria mine and East Africa Crude Oil Pipelines to cut their ties now. Both of these projects will fuel climate breakdown. Lloyd’s of London and the insurers in its market sit at the centre of a web of climate wreckers in the City of London, alongside Barclays and HSBC.”
The occupations came on the second day of the Fossil Free London “Oily Money Out” protests targeting the Energy Intelligence Forum where fossil fuel corporations talk to government. This Forum occurs in the run up to the COP28 Climate Conference where President Sultan Al Jaber CEO of ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), has been captured by fossil fuel corporations.
There must be no more coal, no more gas and we must stop the flow of oil. Join our campaign to stop insuring the climate crisis.
