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Climate activists have this morning (Weds) disrupted an insurance industry conference held at Howden’s offices [1] by interrupting proceedings, singing and theatre, occupying the entrance hall and blowing whistles.

The noisy disruption started at 8am, as arriving conference delegates and insurance staff were greeted by protesters shouting through megaphones and blowing whistles and pleading with them to blow the whistle on their fossil fuel insuring CEOs, speak out at work against insuring oil, gas and coal, or jump ship to companies who refuse to insure fossil fuel exploration and production. Banners read: “CEOS BURNING YOUR FUTURE, MAKE THEM STOP” and “INSURING FOSSIL FUELS – ENSURING CLIMATE COLLAPSE.” 

Inside the conference at least one hundred delegates from top insurers listened with interest as protesters from Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival campaign stood up to give testimonies from African women affected by climate collapse and speeches about the escalating threats to each and everyone of us. 

Lampooning the lifestyles of the mega-rich CEOs who are enabling fossil fuel companies to burn and flood our planet, protesters assembled a model of a bright green Lamborghini sports car outside the main doors that has been made to look like it is sinking into floodwaters. The car – the Shambourghini – has been converted into a karaoke booth with performers singing and inviting the delegates to join them in singing songs about leaving their company.

Meanwhile students from Insure Tomorrow [2] and Education Climate Coalition [3] staged a lobby occupation warning that young talent is shunning fossil fuel insurers. They held a banner saying: “NO NEW WORKERS FOR FOSSIL FUEL INSURERS”.

As people queued to get in, activists impersonating insurance workers could be seen reading satirical tabloid newspapers such as The Sin (headline: “Hell-A. LA Wildfires caused by profit-mad CEOs”) and The Daily Fail (headline: “Fire, flood, famine but insurance CEOs laugh all the way to the bank”).

The disruption will be a major embarrassment for conference hosts Howden as it took place in front of their international peers and competitors. The broker’s underwriting portfolio includes oil and gas, mining, energy service contractors and drilling contractors, and processing and refining companies. [4]. 

Howden have been feeling the heat because the offices of their High Street retail division across the UK – that facilitate insurance for our homes and cars – were repeatedly visited by Extinction Rebellion local groups in the second half of 2024, including over Christmas.  

Three of the companies attending – Swiss Re, Munich Re and Hannover Re – and their CEOs were singled out by protesters because they provide insurance to the other insurance companies. Their support for high-risk fossil fuel projects undermines efforts to combat climate breakdown, making them a key player in environmental harm and hindering sustainable progress. Axa and Allianz were also targeted.

The insurance industry is suffering from a recruitment and retention crisis [5] and students and young people are piling on the pressure. A recent KPMG survey of 6,000 office workers identified a rise in “climate quitting” among 18-24 year olds [6], with 1 in 3 turning down a job to avoid working for a company with poor ESG commitments [7].

Today’s Insure Our Survival protests are the latest in more than 134 nonviolent direct actions over the last year in the City of London and across the UK that targeted more than 100 offices of 27 insurance firms in 40+ towns and cities. [7] [8] [9]

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Lucy Porter said: “It’s difficult to know whether to laugh or cry at an insurance industry conference called “Is Another World Possible?” attended by senior insurers who are lining their pockets by helping fossil fuel crooks to burn down the only world we’ve got.

“Insurance staff – It’s time for you to rise up against senior management who are forcing you to be complicit in the destruction of their own futures. Don’t let your CEO make you part of a climate crime that threatens to kill billions. He is burning your future to keep making a killing.

“We know it’s scary and tough, but the world needs you to rise up and tell your bosses to stop insuring oil, gas and coal. You can strike a mighty blow to halt the fossil fuel criminals in their tracks because without the insurance that your business provides, they can’t keep drilling and digging for the products destroying our futures.”

Shana Sullivan, PhD student and spokesperson for the Education Climate Coalition, said: “Like the Insure Our Survival protesters, students and graduates see clearly the toxicity of the insurers at this conference. We see them insuring an arms industry that fuels wars and genocides. We see them insuring oil, gas and coal projects that cause deadly fires, floods and famine all over the world. We see them refusing to insure vulnerable people and communities from the climate disasters they are helping to cause. Unless we see major changes in this industry, we promise that you will not get to use young talent to burn down our futures.”

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “The insurance industry has been flying under the radar for decades as a prime enabler of climate breakdown. No longer.  Their reputation is being damaged daily as we establish their complicity in destroying our futures in the public mind.

“Zurich announced that they would no longer insure new oil and gas after our week of actions in February 2024. The insurers who continue to underwrite fossil fuel projects can expect to face double the number of protests in 2025. We won’t stop until they stop enabling climate chaos.”

NOTES TO EDITOR

1. “IS ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE? The Risk Forum and Exhibition”, 29 January 2025,  Howden, One Creechurch Lane, London EC3: https://risk.airmicforums.com/ 
2. Insure Tomorrow: https://www.insuretomorrow.org
3. Education Climate Coalition: https://www.educationclimatecoalition.co.uk
4. Howden’s Energy Liabilities: https://www.howdengroup.com/uk-en/industry/natural-resources/energy-liabilities 
5. Insurance industry still faces recruitment, retention challenges: https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/insurance-industry-still-faces-recruitment-retention-challenges
6. Climate quitting – younger workers voting with their feet on employer’s ESG commitments https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/media/press-releases/2023/01/climate-quitting-younger-workers-voting-esg.html
7. Insure Our Future – week of action https://extinctionrebellion.uk/act-now/campaigns/insure-our-future/
8. To End the Fossil Fuel Era, Activists in London Target the Insurance Industry https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30112024/london-activists-target-insurance-industry-fossil-fuels/
9. Insure Our Survival – how the week unfolded: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2024/11/21/insure-our-survival-how-the-week-unfolded/

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Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate and ecological crisis which is upon us, including the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, leading to societal collapse and mass loss of life. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the frontline. No-one will escape the devastating impacts.