press@extinctionrebellion.uk | +44(0)7756136396
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | YouTube

Images

For a second day running, Extinction Rebellion (XR UK) protesters have targeted insurance companies in the City of London, asking ‘Who are the real criminals?’ [1] ahead of this afternoon’s appeal for the ‘Lord Walney 16’ nonviolent activists at the High Court.

This morning (30th January) scores of protesters arrived from 8am to occupy the offices of Marsh McLennan, and target the CEOs and offices of Lloyd’s of London, Howden, Willis Towers Watson, AXA, and Hiscox – as staff arrived for work.

Today’s action escalated the emerging strategy of putting the spotlight on the potential criminal actions of CEOs. At Marsh McLennan, Howden, and the world’s largest fossil fuel insurer Lloyds of London [1], protestors wore giant masks caricaturing the faces of their CEO and carried placards reading “WANTED FOR DEADLY FOSSIL FUEL PROFITEERING – HOMES FLOODED, BUSINESSES RUINED”. 

At the same time, Christian Climate Action and XR Buddhists jointly held a silent vigil at Hiscox, which is among the top ten insurers of fossil fuels [2]; and medical professionals from Health for XR occupied the lobby of global health insurer AXA, which holds investments in liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals throughout the world. TotalEnergies, the company insured, has vowed to increase LNG production by 50% by 2030. [3] 

At Lloyds, flood victim Swan told the queueing insurers: “I’m broken. I’ve been flooded three times – and I’m not the only one. I’m living in survival mode and the insurers, the banks, and the Government aren’t coming to save us. Social collapse is coming as these insurers go about their business as usual.”

Speeches outside each location told arriving staff about the crimes of their company and CEO. Marsh McLennan – whose CEO is Chris Lay – are insuring the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline despite an internal staff revolt and most other large insurance companies ruling it out. John Neal (CEO Lloyds of London), Carl Hess (CEO Willis Towers Watson) and David Howden (Howden Group) were similarly singled out.

Just 20 companies insure 70% of fossil fuel projects and a significant number of these are based in the UK, mostly in the City of London. [4] Insure our Survival is targeting the insurance companies Marsh McLennan and Howden and global insurance market Lloyds of London because they are major facilitators of oil, gas and coal underwriting: Marsh, Howden and the syndicates who operate within the Lloyds of London market connect fossil fuel businesses to many different insurers to enable them to comparison shop for the best prices.

Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival Campaign demands insurers withdraw from the fossil fuel market and pull the plug on new oil and gas projects. Insurance gives oil, gas and coal companies the confidence to dig and drill as the planet burns by covering their operations against financial losses when things go wrong. 

Without insurance, major oil and gas companies therefore cannot operate, and climate-wrecking oil, gas, and coal exploration, production and distribution will fail to go ahead. As a result of thousands taking to the street last year, Insure our Survival succeeded in getting the giant insurers Zurich and leading underwriter Probitas to pull out of new oil and gas. [5] All eyes are now on the companies that continue to profit from fuelling climate disaster. 

Later this morning the activists will make their way to the Royal Courts of Justice to join over 1000 people in protesting against the role of oil industry lobbyists in drafting laws that criminalise peaceful activists, standing in support of the 16 political prisoners known as the ‘Lord Walney 16’ [1] whose punitive jail sentences are appealed at the today.  

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. [6] [7] [8]

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “By effectively insuring the climate emergency, the insurance industry is helping create the extreme weather that is flooding our homes, destroying our food supply and threatening to kill billions in our lifetimes. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead insurance executives could be climate heroes and use their ‘superpower’ to shut down the fossil fuel industry and help save our entire civilisation, and the biosphere that we rely on for life.”

“Insurance companies need to stop insuring oil and gas immediately if they are to have a chance of being on the right side of history. You are complicit in an injustice of heinous proportions. While 16 peaceful protestors are in jail for a combined sentence of 41 years, those who are putting our future at peril are continuing to soak up profit.”

Dr Naomi Adelson, GP, joining the protest with XR Health, stated: “As a doctor I have a responsibility to mitigate this crisis to protect public health. It can be hard to know what to do about such a big problem, but health insurers such as AXA have the power to really make a difference by choosing to insure projects that work towards a healthier world rather than those that continue to work with harmful fossil fuels.”

Notes to editors

[1] Court of Appeal to review corrupt jail terms for Just Stop Oil: https://defendourjuries.org/press-releases/court-of-appeal-to-review-corrupt-jail-terms-for-just-stop-oil/
[2] Insure Our Future: Lloyds Market:  https://lloydsinsureourfuture.com/lloyds-market/
[3] Top 20 Lloyd’s syndicates in 2023: https://www.atlas-mag.net/en/article/ranking-of-top-20-lloyd-s-syndicates-in-2017 
[4] TotalEnergies Forecasting LNG Sales Rising 50% to 2030: https://www.naturalgasintel.com/news/totalenergies-forecasting-lng-sales-rising-50-to-2030-but-short-term-said-sensitive-to-supply-disruptions/
[5]  Insure Our Future: Zurich: https://insure-our-future.com/company/zurich/ 
Zurich’s Sustainability Strategy: https://www.zurich.com/sustainability/strategy-and-governance/sustainability-risk 
[6] Insure Our Future – week of action: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/act-now/campaigns/insure-our-future/
[7] 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/
[8] Insure Our Survival – how the week unfolded: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2024/11/21/insure-our-survival-how-the-week-unfolded/

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

Donate | Support our work
What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis
Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock
XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups
XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK
XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globe

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.