Allianz considers group’s stance on coal insurance

MUNICH: Germany’s Allianz is considering whether to stop insuring new coal power plants but told environmental campaigners it would stay in the business for now.

The 22 per cent slide in fourthquarter earnings reported by the insurer on Friday brought into sharp focus the debate raging within its Munich headquarters over how to balance the need to maximise profit with the desire to address environmental concerns.

The company has put together a working group to study the issue of insuring new coal plants, a spokeswoman said on Friday, with a decision expected in late April or early May.

Allianz’s Chief Executive Oliver Baete was a leader in a drive to exit coal investments several years ago - a significant move by one of Europe’s largest investors.

“It’s not a question of if, but rather a question of when and how to manage the transition from coal,” said a source familiar with Baete’s thinking.

Environmental campaign group Unfriend Coal last week published a scathing report that highlighted Allianz’s leadership of a consortium underwriting a large coal-fired power plant under construction in Poland. Allianz, which got out of the business of investing in coal in 2015, said it would continue to offer insurance for the coal-powered energy industry for the time being. “The most important point for us is various countries have an energy need that needs to be fulfilled. They need to be insured,” said board member Guenther Thallinger.

“We believe that with dialogue with various companies over time we can hopefully work down to a much lower level of coal,” he said.

“Allianz is still blind to the contradiction between its ambition to be a climate champion and its support for coal, and its new policies will do little to protect the climate,” Regine Richter, energy and finance campaigner at Urgewald, said on Friday.