The French reinsurer Scor announced on Thursday its departure from the global alliance of insurers for the zero carbon objective (NZIA), which aims to achieve carbon neutrality of the portfolios by 2050, while announcing new measures aimed at limiting its impact on global warming.
“Today we have decided to leave NZIA. This does not change our commitments, nor our roadmap” in the fight against global warming, the new general director of Scor, Thierry Leger, declared before the shareholders gathered in a general assembly.
Founding member of the Net zero insurance alliance (NZIA) in July 2021, placed under the aegis of the UN, Scor is the first Frenchman to close the door of the alliance. Four other industry heavyweights in Europe have preceded it in recent months by announcing their exit: Munich Re, Zurich Re, Hannover Re and Swiss Re. The reinsurer, whose business is insuring insurers, has not detailed the reasons. of this decision. At the end of March, Munich Re had highlighted the risks of hindering free competition inherent in this type of alliance.
Exclusion of support for new oil projects
Scor, however, insisted on the importance of measures taken in the past against global warming, some of which were reinforced on Thursday. Thierry Léger thus evoked “new exclusions on oil, gas, in particular in the Arctic, on tar sands and on thermal coal”. Scor, for example, extends its commitment to exclude support for new oil projects taken over last year to new gas fields.
The company says it will no longer provide “new insurance coverage or optional reinsurance specifically dedicated to oil sands operations” or increase existing coverage. Exceptions can be granted if the client presents a “verified strategy aligned with a credible Net Zero transition plan”, however, the reinsurer specifies.
With around thirty members, NZIA was founded by AXA, Allianz, Aviva, Generali, SCOR, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance Group. After a year 2022 marked by a high accident rate that resulted in a net loss of 301 million euros, Scor returned to the path of profits in the first quarter of 2023, with a net result of 311 million euros, strongly acclaimed in a bag .
Source: BFM TV
