Climate change protesters continued to focus on Lloyd’s of London as the fossil fuel industry’s main insurer by setting off a stink bomb outside the market headquarters in London.
The activist group, Insurance Rebellion, is calling on the UK government and the insurance industry to stop supporting UK development of the West Cumbria coal mine and all other fossil fuel projects. He says he is focusing on Lloyd’s because the market provides about 30% of the world’s fossil fuel infrastructure.
“The stinking devices, which emitted a very strong smell of sulfur, represent the stench of the sulfur-rich coal mine, as well as the fact that the project to build a coal mine in a climate emergency stinks,” said a statement released by Insurance Rebellion.
Lloyd’s has developed a phased approach to its exit from fossil fuel industry investment and insurance, a plan it revealed in December 2020 in its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report. But Insurance Rebellion and other militant groups demand immediate action.
“Lloyd’s is committed to accelerating its transition to a more sustainable insurance and reinsurance market and has sspecific actions and commitments to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement, ”said a Lloyd’s spokesperson. “We are actively involved in constructive engagement on the issue of climate change and continue to explore ways in which Lloyd’s can support a responsible transition.
“The reputation of Lloyd’s of London is increasingly damaged,” said one of the protesters in a statement released by Insurance Rebellion. “It presents itself as a green institution, with its Instagram feed showing a lot of photos of solar panels, but while ensuring the most polluting projects on the planet. Oil sands, new coal mines, Arctic oil drilling – name it, Lloyd’s allows it.”
The protester, who has not been identified, also criticized the UK for “hypocrisy” in hosting the next UN climate change conference, COP26, in Scotland next November. “[O]Our government, financial centers and the insurance industry fund and license new fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow, and if they continue, there really won’t be a tomorrow.
The demonstration at Lloyd’s kicks off two weeks of action across the UK, ahead of and during the G7 summit, to be held June 11-13 in St Ives, Cornwall, England. Insurance Rebellion will be joined by another climate activist group, Extinction Rebellion, in these protests.
Both groups said they were aiming for the summit as a way to get major economies to take urgent action on climate change.
Launched in April 2021, Insurance Rebellion said it aimed “to end climate and ecological degradation by ending insurance for fossil fuel projects and the businesses that cause them.”
Without insurance, the group says on its website, no fossil fuel infrastructure can be operated or built.
“A hotspot for fossil fuel insurance is the global Lloyd’s of London insurance market, which insures approximately 30% of the world’s fossil fuel infrastructure. We demand that they follow through on their greenwashing claims that they are moving away from coal, oil and gas, ”the group’s website continues.