Zurich Insurance Group has withdrawn its membership of the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), becoming the second founding member to quit the climate group in less than a week.
NZIA is part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a group of sectors pushing to decarbonise, but its members have faced growing pressure from campaigners to move faster in cutting emissions linked to their underwriting.
Zurich, one of Europe’s biggest insurers, said it wanted “to focus our resources to support our customers with their transition” after it had established a standardised methodology for tracking and disclosing emissions.
The announcement by Zurich on Wednesday follows a similar announcement on Friday by Munich Re that said it was leaving the group because of antitrust concerns associated with alliances among companies to tackle climate change.
“Zurich’s sustainability ambitions pre-date its membership in the NZIA. Withdrawing from the NZIA will not change the Group’s commitment to sustainability,” a spokesperson for Zurich said.
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Legal experts in the U.S. and Europe have called on regulators to provide more assurances to companies wanting to collaborate to tackle climate change after antitrust concerns takes the center stage in a growing sustainability backlash in the United States led by Republican politicians.
“The NZIA has allowed itself to be immobilised by antitrust concerns from the start,” said Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the non-profit Insure Our Future campaign group.
A group of climate activists last month sent a letter to 30 insurance company CEOs including at Munich Re and Zurich, asking them to “immediately” stop underwriting new fossil fuel projects in the wake of a stark climate warning from U.N. scientists.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
