French Insurance firm AXA (EPA: CS) have made a concerned effort to strengthen their environmental policies as they gave the market an update on Wednesday.
Shares of AXA are trading at EUR24 (+0.14%) 27/11/19 14:06BST.
The insurance and finance industry has seen mixed results, as shares have been up and down. Competitors including Aviva (LON: AV) and Lloyd’s (LON: LLOY) have seen their shares crash following poor respective trading updates.
AXA announced that it would commit to exit coal more quickly across a greater number of countries, as policymakers look to transition into a low carbon economy.
At a time where environmental policies have never been so important, the move to exit coal investments by 2030 is a positive one for AXA and will certainty favor their media image.
AXA said that as an investor it would exit completely from the coal industry across countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union by 2030, and the rest of the world by 2040.
This will put pressure onto other financial institutions and industrial companies to make a concerned effort to step up their fight against climate change.
In other steps announced on Wednesday, the French insurer said it will put 12 billion euros (£10 billion) in “green investments” between 2020-2023.
AXA added that as an insurer, it would restrict coal undewriting policy and stop selling insurance contracts, apart from employee benefits offers, to clients developing new coal projects that exceed 300 MW in capacity.
“AXA is leading the way by driving its portfolio of coal down to zero by 2030,” said Regine Richter, Energy Campaigner at Germany-based campaign group Urgewald.
This comes as a move after firms such as UniCredit (BIT: UCG) and Coca Cola (LON: CCH) have announced new environmentally friendly policies.
Certainly, when fighting climate change competition has to be put to one side as it is a communal effort. The steps made by AXA are ones in the right direction and should set an example to the industry and other multinationals looking to address the issue.
