Carriers hit back at fossil fuel investment figures

By Rebecca Delaney

April 24 - (The Insurer) - Insurers have hit back after a report by a new environmental campaign group slammed five carriers for allegedly holding more than $6.5 billion of investments in fossil fuel majors.

The newly launched group, Boycott Bloody Insurance, conducted an analysis of 13F filings and available investment databases to determine common stock shares held by five carriers with a major presence in the UK commercial insurance market: Allianz, Axa, Aviva, Zurich and RSA.

Since RSA does not disclose its direct investments separately, Boycott Bloody Insurance said the insurer's investments were integrated into the overall portfolio of its parent company, Intact Financial Corporation.

The report included the caveat that investment disclosures can be difficult to obtain, with insight for global insurance companies limited to approximately 13% of all investments.

As of February 2025, the report claims that the five insurers invested a total of $6.5 billion in 115 companies "composed of fossil fuel giants and of (the) largest owners of carbon reserves in the world".

This includes so-called "carbon bombs" (fossil fuel projects with the potential to release over 1 gigaton of CO2) and companies responsible for a significant proportion of cumulative historical carbon emissions from 1854 through to 2022.

According to Boycott Bloody Insurance, Aviva invested in 83 such companies, with investments totalling just over $3.7 billion.

Allianz's investments also top $1 billion across 65 companies, the report said.

According to the report, three fossil fuel majors have cumulative industry investments of more than $500 million: Shell ($1.84 billion), BP ($690.30 million) and ExxonMobil ($597.34 million).

The report claims that Aviva held investments of $571.8 million in BP as of February 2025, with Allianz and Axa holding $80 million and $39 million, respectively.

For ExxonMobil, Boycott Bloody Insurance said Aviva and Allianz have invested $261 million and $250.8 million, respectively, with Zurich at $65.9 million and undisclosed amounts from Axa and Intact.

As well as investments in Shell, the report claims that Zurich provides employers' liability coverage to the group's UK operations. It also said that Zurich provides this coverage to Chevron.

The report made similar statements around providing employers' liability coverage to fossil fuel companies in the UK for Aviva and RSA.

"The world’s largest insurers are complicit in climate collapse," said the report.

"They prop up the corporations most responsible for the climate emergency, underwriting every area of fossil fuel business. Insurers then compound this support by investing billions of dollars in the fossil fuel industry each year."

The carriers named in the investment analysis hit back at the statements made in the report.

A spokesperson for RSA Insurance, an Intact company, told The Insurer: "We are aware of the report by Boycott Bloody Insurance. The report overestimates Intact’s actual underwriting exposure. Intact’s five-point climate strategy focuses on managing our own business impacts and supporting the transition to a low emissions and climate resilient economy."

"Axa has taken note of the Boycott Bloody Insurance report," said a statement from Axa.

"The group would like to remind that it has long been committed to the climate transition. Since 2019: the carbon footprint of our investment portfolio has been halved; our investments in coal have decreased by 74%; our investments in oil and gas have decreased by 49%; (and) our investments in renewable energies have tripled."

An Aviva spokesperson said: "As an investor committed to supporting the transition to net-zero, we believe it is important to invest in companies critical to that and to support the companies which are leading the way. Engagement gives us a seat at the table enabling us to help companies to focus on the biggest risks and opportunities, using our influence to help catalyse the transition, and to maximise value over the long-term.

"We set out in Aviva’s baseline exclusion policy that we are committed to exclude investment in companies generating 5% or more revenue from the mining or sale of thermal coal and those that derive 10% or more revenue from the production of Arctic oil, unless they have science-based targets that align with the goals of the Paris Agreement."

A statement by Allianz Group to this publication said: "Please understand that we cannot comment on individual companies or on exposures outside of our official reporting. We integrate sustainability across all business areas and markets, have our net-zero ambition and drive decarbonization of the real economy."

Zurich did not respond to a request for comment.