Adani mine: three major insurers to have no further involvement in coal project
Three major insurance groups that provided cover for parts of the Adani coal project in Queensland have said they will not provide future policies to the project.
AXA XL, Liberty Mutual and HDI have told Guardian Australia they will not have any further involvement in the project after previously providing insurance cover that has now expired.
The names of the three companies, together with one other insurer, appear on a file seen by Guardian Australia as having provided insurance cover for the project.
Construction has started on the Adani coal site – one of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in Australia’s history. The mine and its railway will export coal through Adani’s Abbot Point terminal to power plants.
Insurance broker Marsh has reportedly been working with Adani since 2015 and like other companies has come under pressure from campaigners to walk away due to coal’s contribution to the climate crisis.
A spokesperson for AXA XL told Guardian Australia the company “do not currently have a live insurance policy for the Carmichael mine’s assets, neither directly nor through packages, and we do not intend to do so in the future.”
The spokesperson said the policy had provided “a period of residue cover for work defaults” and that this expired in 2021.
The decision to break ties with the Adani project was related to a new company policy on coal, announced in January 2020.
The spokesperson added that “we are all committed to a long-term ‘exit’ strategy reducing exposure to the thermal coal industry to zero by 2030 in the European Union and OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world”.
A spokesperson for Liberty Mutual said the firm and its subsidiary Liberty Specialty Markets “do not have any current policies in place for the Adani Carmichael mine project”.
Guardian Australia asked if the company had any ongoing involvement in the mine and its railway project.
In a statement, the spokesperson added: “In January 2019, we informed the appropriate parties we would not be participating in the insurance program for the operational phase of the project. We will not have any further involvement in the Adani Carmichael mine project.”
A previous policy covering early works site construction had expired in October 2019 and the company remained “contractually obligated to a 24-month maintenance period for any defects that may arise in that specific construction following the conclusion of the period of insurance”.
The spokesperson said the company recognised the risk of climate change and had a new “Office of Sustainability” that would “embed responsible investment and risk management policies into our decision-making.”
The company’s 2019 environment review said “the world needs to retain some level of balance between fossil fuels and renewable sources while making the transition to a fully decarbonised system”.
The company had a policy, the report said, to make no new investments in debt or equity securities of companies that generate more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal mining and to “phase out coverage and investments for existing risks that exceed this threshold by 2023”.
Two other insurers named on the files seen by Guardian Australia were Aspen RE and HDI.
A statement from HDI Global said the company “is not an insurer of the Adani Carmichael coal mine project” and Guardian Australia understands this includes the railway that is part of the Carmichael project.
The statement said the company could not rule out that one or more of its Australian customers could be among the mine’s contractors.
The statement said the company – part of the German-owned Talanx Group – would no longer underwrite any risks for newly planned coal-fired power stations or coalmines. By 2038, the company aimed to no longer have any coal plants or mines in its portfolio.
“It is part of our fundamental business principles not to grant any direct insurance cover to projects like the Adani Carmichael coal mine,” the statement said.
A Marsh employee who has been a commercial risk manager for more than two years with the company, but who asked not to be named, said the insurance broker had “lost domestic clients over this already” and that some colleagues were “concerned about where Marsh stands on climate change and what we represent”.
There was concern among some employees, the manager claimed, of the impact of the mine on the land and culture of the Wangan and Jagalingou people.
In May, the company’s parent group, Marsh & McLennan, released a onepage “client engagement principles” document, saying the firm had a commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on climate change. That goal does not include specific temperature targets, unlike the UN’s Paris climate agreement.
The document was branded as “greenwash” by campaigners.
A spokesperson for Marsh told Guardian Australia the company had a “long-standing policy not to comment on the identity of clients” and pointed to its client engagement principles.
“These principles do not contain a bright-line policy against any industry. Rather, we will evaluate proposed engagements that potentially conflict with these goals and determine whether work can proceed as proposed or with limitations.”
The spokesperson said Marsh had adopted recommendations of the international Financial Security Board’s taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures – a project chaired by Michael Bloomberg that encourages financial institutions and companies to disclose their exposure to risks from climate change.
A spokesperson for Aspen Insurance said the company could not discuss individual policies, adding: “We are currently reviewing our underwriting appetite around fossil fuel but cannot comment further at this time.”
Aspen “understands the importance of environmental, social and governance issues,” the spokesperson said, and the company had joined a UN leadership platform “for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices.”
In January, the Australian coach company Greyhound cut ties with a contractor building the Adani mine railway after Guardian Australia revealed its association with the coal project.
Pablo Brait, a campaigner at Market Forces, a group working to highlight financial links between companies and fossil fuel projects, said: “The fact that there are more than a dozen insurers who have said that they won’t go near the Adani project speaks to the reputational risk that any company that underwrites it faces.
“Most insurance policies have expiry dates and we encourage any company underwriting the project either with Adani directly or through a contractor to refuse to renew any policies when they come up for renewal or expire.”
An Adani spokesperson said: “Details on insurance providers for the Carmichael Project are commercial in confidence, however we have the requisite insurance requirements in place.”