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
Media Release: New campaign targets QBEs climate hypocrisy
Monday 2nd May, 2016 As QBE prepares for its Sydney AGM in Sydney on Wednesday, Market Forces has today launched a new campaign calling on the insurance company to stop ‘making climate change possible.’ Activists this morning visited the company’s headquarters in Sydney, to colourfully highlight the company’s role as a major insurer … Read More
Climate change: made possible by QBE
Activists this morning gave QBE’s headquarters a colourful new rebranding, illustrating how the insurance company was making climate change possible through its underwriting of major fossil fuel projects.
Can you mitigate natural disasters without mitigating climate change?
3 March 2016 A new report by the Australian Business Roundtable has found that the economic impact of natural disasters in Australia is expected to balloon in the next decade. At the moment, natural disasters in Australia do $9 billion of economic damage per year, set increase to an average … Read More
Time to tell Australia’s insurers to ditch coal
28 January 2016 Around the world, pressure is building on the insurance industry to divest from fossil fuels, while back home we are ramping up our campaign to stop Australia’s major insurers shooting themselves in the foot by investing in climate change’s drivers. In the latest international development, California’s Insurance Commissioner on … Read More
Our achievements and highlights of 2015
2015 was a monumental year for campaigning to get finance and investment away from fossil fuels. Check out some of our wins and highlights of the year!
Allianz, world’s largest insurer, dumps coal
24 November 2015 Allianz Investment Management, the money management arm of the largest insurer in the world, has committed to divesting coal from their portfolios. The firm manages in excess of EUR 600 billion of assets covering the liabilities of the insurer. In an interview with broadcaster ZDF, Chief Investment … Read More
IAG: We Need Climate Leadership
22 October 2015 It dawned on me yesterday at the Insurance Australia Group AGM, just how detached corporate Australia is from reality, when the IAG board became genuinely annoyed by questions related to climate change. If the board of an insurance company does not believe climate change is impacting on its … Read More
How to mismanage climate risk until it hurts
This article first appeared on Renew Economy on 19 October 2015 There’s an old saying that what counts is what gets counted, there’s a less well-known adage that says, what doesn’t get counted can cost you a fortune. The Australian insurance industry is finding out all about that one now because … Read More
Suncorp’s $1bn extreme weather loss. Climate change, anyone?
24 September 2015 Suncorp Group held its Annual General Meeting in Brisbane today and several shareholders pointed out that in the last financial year, Suncorp was hit by losses from natural disasters of $473 million above provisions. The Brisbane hailstorm in November, Cyclone Marcia in February and NSW storms in … Read More