Insurance Giant AIG Continues Underwriting and Investment in Fossil Fuels at Alarming Rates
AIG has yet to clarify a path forward on 2022 climate commitments, new scorecard reveals
WASHINGTON, D.C. – American International Group, Inc. (AIG) remains one of the top 10 insurers of the fossil fuel industry, despite publicly committing to change the way the company approached risks caused by climate change in March 2022.
In its seventh annual scorecard, the Insure Our Future campaign found that AIG collected more than an estimated 500 million dollars in premiums and holds an estimated $24.2 billion in fossil fuel investments.
“AIG ranks in the stagnant middle of the scorecard because in spite of its ESG language, the company hasn’t taken any steps to restrict its support for the fossil fuel sector,” said Rick Morris, insurance campaigner with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. “Supporting fossil fuels remains big business for AIG, despite rising harm caused by climate, putting strain on insurers, and AIG’s own announcement it would curb home-insurance sales to customers in some 200 ZIP Codes across the U.S. because of climate change.”
In March 2022, AIG announced climate commitments that include reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner, as well as no longer providing underwriting for or investments in the construction of any new coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines, or oil sands. Further, this year Public Citizen revealed that the company remains a major underwriter of coal mines and insures a controversial LNG plant in Texas.
In twenty months since its March commitment, AIG has been agonizingly slow to take steps toward achieving the announcement’s goals.
In the seventh annual scorecard, Insure Our Future reveals that most insurers continue to support projects to increase oil and gas production even though the world’s leading climate scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and experts at the International Energy Agency agree that new fossil fuel production is incompatible with the 1.5°C Paris climate target.
From Insure Our Future: Pollution Premiums: U.S. insurers make families pay for soaring climate costs
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