World’s leading insurers/reinsurers and UN Environment Programme to establish NZIA

Written by Adam Cadle

21/04/2021

Seven of the world’s leading insurers and reinsurers, working together with the UN Environment Programme, are currently in the process of establishing a Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA).

The NZIA is expected to be launched at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow this November (COP26). The seven companies - AXA (NZIA Chair), Allianz, Aviva, Munich Re, SCOR, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance Group - are all signatories to the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) and are establishing the NZIA under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme’s PSI Initiative, the largest collaboration between the UN and the global insurance industry.

"We insurers and reinsurers can deliver impact on climate not only through our investment decisions but also through our underwriting actions. The insurance and reinsurance coverage we provide to our customers can support the transition to a greener economy. We believe it is our role to both serve our clients and preserve our planet,” AXA group chief risk officer and NZIA chair Renaud Guidée stated.

"Achieving the climate neutrality ambition is a matter of long-term sustainability, yet it comes with a sense of urgency – this is why we intend to join the Race to Zero. In the run-up to COP26, the UN-convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, being established by seven leading insurers and reinsurers with global operations, is open to on-board additional members across the world.”

To ensure that the NZIA and its members comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations, including anti-trust, they are actively working with external legal advisors to help determine the shape and substance of the NZIA’s activity and net-zero commitment. This legal analysis is expected to be finalised by June 2021, in time for the G7 Leaders’ Summit in the UK.

“These seven global insurers and reinsurers represent the ‘G7’ of the insurance industry in terms of net-zero ambition,” said Butch Bacani, who leads the PSI at the UN Environment Programme. “By advancing the net-zero agenda across both their insurance and investment activities, these insurers are demonstrating cognitive consonance, accelerating the race to zero, and setting the net-zero bar for the rest of the global insurance industry.”

The CEOs of all seven companies establishing the NZIA have formally submitted a statement of intent to join the COP26 Race to Zero campaign and become part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).

GFANZ, launched today, brings together existing and new net-zero finance initiatives into one sector-wide strategic forum, and will work to mobilise the trillions of dollars necessary to build a global zero emissions economy and deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement.

GFANZ has been launched by Mark Carney, the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action & Finance and the UK Prime Minister’s Finance Adviser for COP26 - in partnership with the UNFCCC Climate Action Champions and the UN Race to Zero campaign, and the COP26 Presidency - on the eve of US President Joe Biden’s Head of State Climate Summit.

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