16 August 2018 Yesterday, volunteers from Market Forces and 350.org visited QBE’s head office in Sydney and spoke to staff about its climate change policies. QBE, Australia’s largest global insurer, is facing increasing pressure to end its support for fossil fuels. The company is an important provider of insurance to … Read More
Suncorp’s Climate Change Action Plan: plenty of detail but where are the outcomes?
Suncorp, a major Australian financial services company and general insurer, today released its Climate Change Action Plan. As expectations mount from investors and regulators that companies disclose the risks they face as a result of climate change and efforts to fight it, this is Suncorp’s first major attempt to convince … Read More
IAG: Federal Government is deaf on climate change
20 October 2017 In a week dominated by the Federal Government’s capitulation to the coal lobby in its latest instalment of energy policy failure, it was an opportune time for Australia’s largest general insurer – IAG – to call out the need for tougher action on climate change at their … Read More
Suncorp to divest from fossil fuels?
21 September 2017 At Suncorp’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Brisbane today, company chair Ziggy Switkowski made the quite unexpected commitment to reduce the company’s fossil fuel exposure to an ‘immaterial’ amount over the next two years. The revelation came in response to repeated questions from shareholders about climate change, … Read More
QBE supporting Adani!
At their annual general meeting in Sydney, QBE revealed that even though it has not yet been approached to underwrite the Carmichael mega mine, it has an ongoing relationship with the mine’s owner, Adani. The insurer, which operates globally and is a major underwriter of fossil fuel infrastructure, supports Adani’s … Read More
Media Release: HCF Becomes First Health Insurer to Dump Fossil Fuels
Melbourne, 10 February 2017 Finance campaign group Market Forces is welcoming the announcement that private health fund HCF will divest from all fossil fuels in the first quarter of this year. Representing over 680,000 Australians and responsible for $2 billion of assets, HCF holds more than $200 million in equities, … Read More
HCF becomes Australia’s first health fund to divest fossil fuels!
10 February 2017 HCF – the private health fund for over 680,000 Australians and responsible for $2 billion of assets – has confirmed that it is divesting from fossil fuels! This is an Australian first for a health insurance fund and what makes HCF’s announcement all the more important is … Read More
Pressure forces Medibank to consider divestment
10 November 2016 Shareholders and health professionals flooded Medibank with question about their fossil fuel investments and preparedness for climate change at their annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday in Melbourne, prompting the Chairwoman to commit to considering divesting the company from coal, oil and gas. Medibank understands the importance … Read More
IAG: Leading On Climate But More To Be Done
22 October 2016 Exactly one year ago at their 2015 AGM, IAG’s executives seemed genuinely annoyed by questions related to climate change. This was despite the fact that natural disaster claims in 2014/15 were in excess of $1 billion. Clearly the steady increase in the cost of natural disaster claims … Read More
Suncorp understands the importance of 2ºC, fails to commit to it.
22 September 2016 Creator of the award-winning Skeptical Science website John Cook and Associate Professor Kristen Lyons were among the shareholders attending the Suncorp AGM today in Brisbane, trying to find out why a company that is losing billions of dollars in climate change related damage is not doing anything about it. Suncorp … Read More