Connecticut’s insurance industry is part of the “money pipeline” that feeds the fossil fuel industry in two ways: through investments in fossil fuel companies and by underwriting fossil fuel projects. In fact, the top 30 insurers doing business in Connecticut invest over $221 billion in fossil fuels. 

 

Imagine if this  “money pipeline” was redirected toward renewable energy. Can you smell the clean air? See the clean water? Feel the climate healing? 

 

As a global hub of the insurance industry, we here in Connecticut have an opportunity to apply grassroots pressure on the industry, and we are!

 

This month, in collaboration with the Connecticut Citizen Action Group and others, we engaged in a variety of actions to let insurance companies in our state know we want them to adopt sustainable investment and insurance practices in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. This has included:

 

• Release of the report “Connecticut Insurers: Ensuring the Climate Crisis”

• A letter from a dozen Connecticut organizations to CEOs of Chubb, Cigna, HSB, Munich Re, The Hartford, Travelers, WR Berkley

• A virtual march to insurance companies attended by over 120 people and viewed hundreds of times

• Hundreds of emails and phone messages to insurance companies urging action. You can send an email here

 

There’s much more to be done in the coming weeks and months. Up next are the shareholder meetings of many of these insurance companies. We will hold another webinar, and we will organize shareholders to urge the companies to divest from fossil fuels, stop insuring fossil fuel projects, and align their policies with keeping global warming below 1.5C. Stay tuned for details.  Let us know by email if you are a shareholder of any of these companies and would like to help: Cigna, The Hartford, Travelers, or WR Berkley. 

 

Together, we can stop the fossil fuel “money pipeline” from our home-based insurance industry.