Greenpeace Turns Exhibition Sponsored By EU’s 3rd Largest Insurer Into Climate Intervention

ROME, Italy, Oct. 15 -- Greenpeace International issued the following news release:

Today, Greenpeace Italy activists donated three paintings to a Generali-sponsored exhibition for expressionist art. The paintings show the role of coal in the climate emergency. They are demanding that the insurer rigorously apply its coal exclusion policy to coal-dependent countries like the Czech Republic and Poland.

Luca Iacoboni, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Italy said:

"We are in a climate emergency and it is unacceptable that Generali, a major global insurer, is still backing climate-destroying coal. Insurance should be about protecting people's health, lives and property, rather than the coal industry which plays a role in extreme weather events. Generali must apply its anti-coal policy without loopholes for climate polluters and in support of international efforts to phase out coal by 2030."

Generali, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, remains a coal insurer despite its coal exclusion policy published in November last year. Generali's climate strategy refers to both the Paris Agreement and the IPCC report on 1.5 C global warming, yet Generali still insures coal projects like Kozienice, the third biggest coal plant in Europe. It also insures Turow Coal Mine, the planned expansion of which will risk polluting the drinking water of more than 30,000 people.

Adam Pawloff, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe said:

"There is no coal without insurance. Insurance companies have to take responsibility for their role in propping up the biggest energy-related cause of global heating. If Generali wants to join the global climate fight, rather than be its target, it has to stop doing business with companies owning the most polluting coal plants in Europe: PGE in Poland and CEZ in Czech Republic."

AXA, Allianz, Zurich, Swiss Re, and others have either ended or limited their insurance support for coal. Generali too could play an important role in weakening coal's dominance in the power sector, generating 40-41% of the world's electricity, and contribution of 44% of global, energy-related CO2 emissions.

Presently, the insurance industry is still not moving fast enough on fossil fuels. Greenpeace demands that insurance companies no longer provide insurance for -- or investment in -- new fossil fuel projects, such as mines, wells, power plants, infrastructure etc., and gradually phase out existing business with fossil fuel companies in line with the Paris Agreement and the 1.5 C, moving first and fastest on coal.