California Releases Climate Draft Plan, Axis Accelerates Retreat from Coal

October 21, 2021 by

Insurer Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. announced new a policy restricting insurance and investments in coal, tar sands oil, and Arctic oil and gas.

Axis committed to stop insuring any company developing coal infrastructure and phase out all coal business.

Axis says it will not provide insurance for companies that are developing new thermal coal plants or mines or their dedicated infrastructure, and it committed to fully phasing out thermal coal business from insurance, facultative reinsurance, and investment portfolios by 2030 in OECD countries and the EU and 2040 globally, according to Insure Our Future, an activist campaign comprising environmental, consumer protection and grassroots organizations

“It is our belief at AXIS that [insurance/reinsurance] industry needs to move to the forefront of the efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy,” AXIS President and CEO Albert Benchimol said in prepared remarks. “Today’s actions reflect the determination and commitment of our team to contribute to positive environmental change.” According to Insure Our Future, more than 30 insurers have announced restrictions on coal insurance, seven of which have committed to fully phase out coal.

California

The California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research this week released a draft of the state’s climate adaptation strategy.

The release of the draft opens up a public comment period from that lasts through Nov. 17.

The draft strategy is designed to accelerate climate adaptation action in California, identify state agency actions that can fit together to achieve priorities, and build on lessons learned since the first climate adaptation strategy in 2009.

The final strategy is expected to be released as a website that serves as a hub for state climate resilience action.

“Californians are experiencing what scientists have been explaining for decades: climate change is accelerating and threatening our communities and way of life,” California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said in a statement. “Catastrophic wildfires, worsening drought, and record-breaking heat now threaten our communities and natural places. This Adaptation Strategy directly responds to these threats. It links together several important efforts already underway to protect people and nature from climate change and prioritizes additional actions we must take. Simply put, there’s no time to waste.”

Three regional workshops and two Tribal listening sessions to solicit input on the draft are scheduled. Details of those sessions will be posted on the 2021 California Climate Adaptation Strategy web page.

99.9%

More than 99.9% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is mainly caused by humans, according to a survey of 88,125 climate-related studies by Cornell University researchers.

The research updates a 2013 paper, which at the time showed that 97% of studies published between 1991 and 2012 supported the notion that human activities were altering the planet. The current Cornell survey examines academic literature published from 2012 to November 2020.

“We are virtually certain that the consensus is well over 99% now and that it’s pretty much case closed for any meaningful public conversation about the reality of human-caused climate change,” Mark Lynas, one of the authors of the paper, was quoted saying in a Cornell Chronicle article on the new research.

The research, titled “Greater than 99% Consensus on Human Caused Climate Change in the Peer-Reviewed Scientific Literature, was published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The researchers started with a random sample of 3,000 studies drawn from 88,125 English-language climate papers out from 2012 and 2020. Only four of the 3,000 papers were skeptical of human-caused climate change, the researchers found.

Climate Risk Management

A new global survey from the Global Association of Risk Professionals finds that more firms are incorporating scenario analysis into their risk assessments.

The survey, “Third Annual Global Survey of Climate Risk Management at Financial Firms,” is on the GARP website. It was conducted by the GARP Risk Institute, with participation from 78 financial institutions, including banks, asset managers and insurers.

The survey ranked participating firms on their climate risk management capabilities in areas such as governance, risk management, scenario analysis and disclosures.

Findings include:

  • Regulatory scrutiny is increasing. Nearly 80% of firms report that their regulators have published formal expectations for climate risk management, while 65% say that regulators are now requiring them to report their climate-related risks.
  • A majority of company boards oversee climate risk management – 92% of firms in the 2021 survey have board oversight of climate risk.
  • A wide disparity exists in climate risk measurement and tracking. The best firms are using a range of metrics, with targets and limits for their climate risk exposures.
  • Climate risk is widely seen as improperly priced. Only 6% of firms believe that climate risk is priced correctly.

“Climate risk management and scenario analysis are evolving at pace and the GARP annual survey shines a light on how firms are responding,” Adityadeb Mukherjee, head of climate risk management at Standard Chartered Bank, said in a statement.

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