Red card Allianz: Extinction Rebellion target fossil fuel insurer at rugby final

June 10, 2025 by Extinction Rebellion

Interviews are available with Olympian Etienne Stott: press@extinctionrebellion.uk, 07756136396.

Extinction Rebellion will be engaging with the 82,000 rugby fans at the Premiership final at Twickenham on the 14th of June to expose the hypocrisy of the RFU taking money from Allianz while the insurer is fuelling the climate chaos that is flooding rugby clubs across the country.

Beyond flooding people’s homes [1], causing life-threatening heatwaves [2], and raising food prices [3], the climate crisis is having a disruptive impact on sport, including local rugby clubs. Up and down the country, pitches are being flooded, with Newark Rugby Club in Nottinghamshire, for example, experiencing six floods last year, causing them major losses and preventing them from being able to offer rugby to their community for long periods of time [4].

The climate crisis could not happen without insurance. The oil, gas, and coal industries are legally obliged to insure their operations, including their pipelines, oil rigs, and coal mines. 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.

Oil, gas and coal companies require insurance to dig and drill. It enables continued harm as the planet burns by covering their operations against financial losses when things go wrong. At the same time, insurance companies are using climate change as an excuse to double or even triple the cost of home insurance for ordinary homeowners, allowing them to rake in more profit from a crisis of their own making [5].

As a result of thousands taking to the street last year, Insure our Survival succeeded in getting the giant insurers Zurich to pull out of new oil and gas [6] [7] [8], and leading underwriter Probitas to commit to not insure two major ‘carbon bomb’ projects – the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and the West Cumbria coal mine [9]. All eyes are now on the companies that continue to profit from fuelling climate disaster.

Research by the global campaign group Insure Our Future shows Allianz to be among the top ten oil and gas insurers [10] underwriting $925M in fossil fuel premiums in total in 2023 [11]. Allianz also holds $26bn worth of assets in fossil fuel companies [12], placing them in the top 10 worst insurance companies for fossil fuel investments [13].

Rugby is flooded with insurance money, from Allianz sponsoring the Twickenham stadium, AJ Gallagher sponsoring the premiership final match itself, to Howden sponsoring the British Lions tour. This means that the sponsors of rugby are directly responsible for climate disasters disrupting the rugby community and the lives of its fans through their deals supporting planetwide oil, gas and coal extraction.

At Twickenham, Extinction Rebellion supporters will attract fans’ attention with outreach and banners and by handing out leaflets and beer mats and engaging them in hundreds of conversations. They hope to get individuals and teams to demand that the Rugby Football Union drop Allianz as a sponsor.

Gold-medal Olympian Etienne Stott who is a spokesperson for the action said: “We will not be disrupting the match – but we will be getting the conversation going with rugby fans about how dirty insurance is harming the sport they love. We will be calling on the RFU to stop sports-washing floody insurers like Allianz, who are fuelling the climate crisis, which is flooding our clubs.”

Notes to editors

© Image Copyright Bob Embleton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

[1] How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods

[2] UK weather: Hotter than normal summer more likely says Met Office – BBC Weather

[3] Five charts: How climate change is driving up food prices around the world – Carbon Brief

[4] Newark Rugby Club counts cost of sixth flood in just over a year

[5] How insurers are using climate change as an excuse to TRIPLE the cost of home cover | This is Money

[6] Insurance Week of Action – Extinction Rebellion UK

[7] Zurich CEO to hold talks with XR after week of insurance protests

[8] Insure Our Future Responds to Zurich’s New Oil and Gas Exit Policy

[9] Probitas pulls out of EACOP and West Cumbria coal mine

[10] IoF-Scorecard-2024.pdf p.25