LONDON - The Republicans’ success in triggering the break-up of a coalition of insurance firms aimed at tackling climate change is owed to individual states in the United States being the industry’s primary regulator, interviews with industry executives and former officials show.
The attorneys-general have turned their attacks on environmental, social, and corporate governance practices in the business world into a political rallying cry. “The attorneys-general have seized on these characteristics of the insurers to take advantage of them,” said Mr Dave Jones, former insurance commissioner in California and now director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley.
“ are exploiting a fear factor given the authority they have,” Mr Ravenel told Reuters. He added that he did not expect other climate alliances to suffer many departures despite the pressure from Republicans, and urged the 16 insurance firms remaining at the NZIA to stay the course. They have been unnerved by the spread of departures among insurers which have been assured by lawyers they are not violating US antitrust laws, and by the exit in the past week of firms with tiny exposures to the United States, the people said.
Munich Re remains a member of another Gfanz group, the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance , as does Allianz, which quit the NZIA last week. Munich Re said that the share of global assets held by Nzaoa members meant antitrust risks were “significantly lower”.Insurance companies will play a pivotal role in the world’s shift away from a higher-carbon economy, given almost every project depends on their underwriting.