Insure Our Future Welcomes Chubb’s Tar Sands Exit

New York, NY (September 14, 2021) –– “Chubb does not provide insurance coverage for any tar sands projects,” a Chubb spokesperson told the Financial Times today. The announcement was shared in a tweet by Financial Times reporter Ian Smith. 

“By dropping Trans Mountain, Chubb has started to walk the talk around the climate crisis. The Trans Mountain Pipeline and expansion is a fuse to the carbon time bomb known as the Alberta Oil Sands that violates Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s inherent and constitutionally protected rights. We are committed to stopping this destructive and risky project on behalf of the salmon, the orcas and for future generations of people who live in our territory,” said Charlene Aleck of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust Initiative.

“Chubb’s announcement is a critical win for the environment and Indigenous rights. This makes it the 16th insurer to drop coverage of or rule out insuring the Trans Mountain tar sands expansion project,” said Elana Sulakshana, Energy Finance Campaigner at Rainforest Action Network. “But we need more information to understand if this is a future-facing exclusion policy that restricts insurance for tar sands companies and projects like Trans Mountain moving forward.”

Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer, became an early leader on climate change when it adopted a coal policy in 2019, but the company has not made any additional climate commitments since then. In recent months, it has been under increasing pressure for its involvement with the tar sands industry. 

It faced repeated protests this summer for insuring the climate-wrecking Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline in Canada, which is opposed by Indigenous communities along the route. 

“Chubb’s decision to cut ties with the Trans Mountain pipeline makes it clear once again that this pipeline is too risky for the climate,” said Sven Biggs, Canadian Oil and Gas Program Director for Stand.earth. “Clearly Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg knows you can’t call yourself a climate leader while backing this pipeline. With just a few days left until Canadians go to the polls we need to ask: How come Justin Trudeau can’t figure that out?”  

Last week at the US Open, which Chubb sponsors, citizens groups erected a 15-foot inflatable of Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg to demand he act on climate change. US Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wrote to Greenberg in March asking how Chubb’s underwriting policies align with its sustainability commitments.

“We welcome Chubb’s announcement on tar sands, and call on them to take the next step: rule out all fossil fuel expansion in line with the International Energy Agency’s 1.5 degree pathway,” added Sulakshana. “And we urge AIG, Liberty Mutual, and Lloyd’s of London to follow Chubb’s lead by dropping Trans Mountain and exiting tar sands.”

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Media contact:

Jamie Kalliongis, (314) 651-7497, jamie.kalliongis@sunriseproject.org