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

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

IAG Commits To 2 Degrees

19 August 2016 Insurance Australia Group (IAG) today became the first Australian insurance company to commit to the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature rise to two degrees. You’d think insurance companies would have been the first institutions to acknowledge and support actions to address climate change, given … Read More

QBE dodges questions but offers dialogue

5 May 2016 Market Forces representatives attended the QBE AGM in Sydney on Wednesday. QBE is the largest insurer in Australia by market capitalisation, and operates across 37 countries employing over 14,000 people. QBE is also a critical ally to the fossil fuel industry – it underwrites offshore oil rigs, … Read More