New York, NY — On February 27, 2024 climate activists marched down 6th Ave in Manhattan, stopping at AIG, Chubb, and Tokio Marine offices with a clear message: Insure Our Future, not fossil fuels. The demonstration comes just days after a report exposed the 35 different insurance companies supporting oil and gas projects across the U.S. Gulf South.
Some companies continue to insure projects despite pulling out of communities in the same area. AIG, for example, is insuring Cameron LNG and Sabine Pass LNG despite announcing it would no longer write business in Louisiana because it is too risky.
Members of the communities impacted by insured projects will be delivered a petition with over 345,000 signatures, a copy of the Risk Exposure: The Insurers Secretly Backing The Methane Gas Boom In The U.S. Gulf South report, and requesting a meeting with company leadership. Speakers will share stories about their communities and the harm caused by the oil and gas industry.
The event is part of an Insurance Week of Action where groups in over 25 countries across 6 continents will hold a week’s worth of demonstrations, marches, direct actions and events with a clear message: Insure Our Future, not fossil fuels.
Insurance companies have an opportunity to help secure a safe, livable future for us and future generations. It’s time for these companies to decide, are they going to insure our future or continue to help burn it to the ground?
They’ve demonstrated that they can accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels through their coal exit policies. Yet they’re dragging their feet on exiting from oil and gas projects. One of the oil and gas industry’s biggest secrets is that everything from extracting, transporting, refining, and exporting requires insurance.
Without insurance fossil fuel companies can’t operate. This means that insurers have the power to rein in the out of control expansion that threatens our communities and is worsening the climate crisis.
To make matters worse, many of the same insurance companies underwriting oil and gas projects are raising rates and outright refusing to ensure homes that sit in the path of the resulting climate destruction. That ain’t right!
© Erik McGregor – erikrivas@hotmail.com – 917-225-8963