How much does insurance companies invest in the fossil fuel industry?

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Investing in a ‘existential threat’

Palisades and Eaton -Brande are likely to fall as Most economically expensive disaster in state history – and among the most expensive in the US history.

Historical destruction arrived after major insurance companies advertised that they would stop writing new policies in Golden StatePartly refers to the increasing risk of destructive fires.

The withdrawal indicates that insurers are responding to what scientists have told us: man -made climate change intensifies fires, rain and other weather events. And that climate change first and foremost is driven by our Continued combustion of fossil fuels.

But insurance experts, consumer lawyers and environmental groups accuse insurance companies of capturing the climate crisis by continuing to invest hundreds of billions in the fossil fuel industry.

With fires fresh in many California minds, they renew the calls for insurance companies to get their money out of the polluting industry that is burning disasters.

How much money does insurance companies have fossil fuels?

More than half a trillion dollars from 2019, according to a 2023 study led by nonprofit -beced.

Researchers analyzed data provided by property and accident companies and life insurance groups and found that the top 16 insurance companies in the USA “had approx. 50% of the over $ 500 billion in fossil fuel -related assets owned by the sector. “

Among property insurance companies, State Farm and Berkshire Hathaway had the most money invested by Size orders – $ 30.9 billion and $ 20.9 billion respectively.

It’s not just investment. Insurers also draw fossil fuel projects that researchers claim “helps greenhouse gas -intensive industries to continue operations contributing to global warming.”

California helped to shed light on US insurance companies’ investments.

Back in 2016, Dave Jones launched the former California Insurance Commissioner, who is now leading UC Berkeley’s climate risk Climate risk -carbon initiativewhich required large insurance companies to reveal their investments in the fossil fuel sector.

Jones also asked insurance companies operating in the state, to voluntarily dispose of from coal, Writing in a statement that “investments in coal and carbon economy risk becoming a stranded asset of diminished value.”

The following June, Jones received one letter from 12 Attorney General and a Governor In Republican states. The threatened litigation If Jones did not end his initiative and accused him of damaging energy companies and insurance companies operating in their states with “public shame.”

Jones wrote backwho tells the state officials that he “was not deterred by your threats.”

“Although it is politically popular in your states to deny or ignore climate change, it is irresponsible and even ruthless,” Iller, “says his letter.

“I said,” but if you want to sue me, take it on, “Jones said. “They don’t sue.”

The data collected from Jones’ request was published on his The department’s site. Ceres later analyzed the assets reported by the insurance companies in 2019, and presented them in their 2023 report.

For Jones, the industry’s commitment to fossil fuels is a nonsensical conflict of interest.

“We know that it is the Fossil Fuel Industry’s emissions that are the primary driving force for climate change that (contributing to) these catastrophic weather -related events that the insurance companies are getting,” he said. “Basically, insurance companies invest half a billion dollars in the industry, which poses an existential threat to their ability to write insurance.”

State Farm, Berkshire Hathaway and Allstate did not respond to requests for comment.

What can legislators (and policyholders) do?

Jones, together with consumer lawyer and environmental groups, has called on states to challenge the insurance industry through new laws that require them to pass away from investments in fossil fuel.

Carmen Balber, CEO of LA-based Consumer Watchdog, said her group has asked the current California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to resume her predecessor Jones’ initiative and demand insurance companies to report their fossil fuel investments again. Lara Previously rejected this request.

“Insurance companies adopt all the costs of climate change to the policyholder … but keeps all the profits,” she told me. “If climate change aggravates insurance loss – and there is no doubt that they are – the insurance industry should not contribute to this problem,” she said.

The first step, Balber said would be a transparent process so that property owners could see how much money the companies that write (or not write) their policies, invest in or discourage fossil fuels.

If the public was better aware of that, she argued, people could vote with their pocketbooks by choosing to buy insurance from companies that have committed to disposal of fossil fuels.

“Unfortunately, this list is not available because we do not have such obligations,” she said.

There was an attempted federal legislation, via EN 2023 bill Co -author of the then rep. Adam Schiff. It would have required large insurance companies to reveal all their investments and insurance in connection with fossil fuels.

“Insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate should not be allowed to take advantage of the climate crisis while neglecting vulnerable societies,” Schiff wrote in a statement At that time. “Requiring insurance companies to publicly revealing their investments in fossil fuel will help build transparency and allow people to make informed choices about their coverage.”

This bill died in a house committee later that year.

Today’s top stories

La fires’ influence on the environment

• People who lost their homes are told that it is safe to return and try to save what is left – but experts say that the waste of the fire is probably teeming with dangerous materials.
• Toxins may have reached parts of LA outside the immediate fire zones; It may take years before we know the full influence on public health.
• The charred and toxic remains of thousands of broken homes, businesses, cars and electronics will eventually rest in the sea.

What – or who – started the Palisades fire?

• Officials believe that Palisades Fire began in the Highlands in the Pacific Palisades near a popular hiking trail.
• Sources said there are two leading theories: an 8 -acre flame that fire officials thought they had released on January 1 in the same area that was reinstated and spread due to intense wind, or a new fire was somehow worked out near that morning.
• Sources have also told Times that Blaze seems to have human origin.

More people were killed in a DC airline accident

• A midair collision between an army helicopter and an American Airlines flight killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft in the country’s worst air disaster in a generation.
• Studies of aircraft accidents can take months, and federal investigators told journalists that they would not speculate on what caused the collision.
• Deadly crashes of commercial aircraft in the United States have become a rarity. The deadliest recent crash was in 2009 near Buffalo, new

What else is going on

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