[1/2] Homes lie partially underwater after the San Joaquin River floods, in Manteca, California, US on March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Fred Graves/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) – Three more insurers including Tokyo Marine have left the U.N.-backed Net Zero Climate Alliance, leaving the group with about half the number of members it counted two months ago as insurers wary of U.S. politics. pressure.
Some Republican politicians have campaigned against corporate financial institutions in an effort to reduce carbon emissions, and a group of Republican attorneys general has turned their focus on insurance companies by accusing them of potentially violating US antitrust laws.
Japanese insurer Tokio Marine (8766.T) is no longer listed as a member of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) website. A Tokyo Marine spokesperson was not immediately available for comment outside of Japanese business hours.
MS&AD Insurance Group (8725.T), another Japanese company, said in a statement Monday that it is leaving less than a year after joining. She said she would “continue our journey to achieve Net-Zero by 2050 with our stakeholders”.
Spain-based Grupo Catalana Occidente (GCO.MC) said in a statement that it is withdrawing and believes it can “continue the path of advancing our sustainability goals individually, outside of the coalition.” She did not explain the reasons for her departure.
The company added that NZIA has offered members assistance in defining their own carbon removal path and that it will set “progressive, science-based targets that will enable it to contribute to climate neutrality”.
A spokeswoman for NZIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NZIA, which was formed in 2019 to make insurers commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their underwriting portfolios to net zero by 2050, is now down to 17 members, according to its website, down from 28 who had two weeks. Before and 30 in late March.
Legal experts say it would be difficult to sue the insurers on antitrust grounds, but the wary international insurers are wary of getting sucked into a fight with US Republicans.
A few have left since late March, but that turned into an exodus last week when NZIA lost at least eight members including Spain’s Mapfer (MAP.MC), France’s AXA (AXAF.PA) – which heads the coalition – and SOMPO Japanese ( 8630 T).
NZIA’s remaining members, including Britain’s Aviva (AV.L), Italy’s Generali (GASI.MI) and France’s Credit Agricole Assurances, are set to hold more calls this week to decide whether the alliance can continue on. This week and how it can continue. Sources familiar with the discussions say the members have resigned.
NZIA is one of several industry climate alliances that exist under the UN-backed Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) umbrella group. GFANZ was launched in 2021 ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit, COP26, in Glasgow.
A GFANZ spokesperson said Friday that “political attacks” on insurers hurt the independent efforts of insurers to price climate risk.
(Reporting by Tommy Rigiore-Wilkes) Editing by Emilia Sithole, Mataris and Mark Potter
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