Hartford Financial Services Group Inc: Net Zero goals or no insuring new oil & gas projects
WHEREAS: Insurance companies have a critical role to play in meeting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5oC) goal, requiring net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Projections have found that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees versus 2 degrees will save $20 trillion globally by 2100; while exceeding 2 degrees could lead to climate damages in the hundreds of trillions. The U.S. insurance industry is under increasing pressure to address its contributions to climate change from underwriting, insuring, and investing in high emitting activities.
These financial activities contribute to systemic portfolio risk to the global economy, investors, and insurers’ profitability. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently acknowledged that climate change could impair the productive capacity of the national economy and recommends that state insurance regulators require insurers to assess how their underwriting activity and investment portfolios may be impacted by climate-related risks. Insured losses from natural disasters reached $42 billion in the first six months of 2021, a ten year high.
The growing public pressure for the insurance industry to account for its climate related risks is exemplified by legislation recently passed in Connecticut requiring regulators to incorporate emissions reduction targets into their supervision of insurers.
Shareholders are concerned that The Hartford Financial Services Group is not adequately reducing the full climate footprint of its insurance-related activities. Hartford has set targets for its buildings, energy use, and travel, but fails to address emissions from its underwriting, insurance, and investment activities, leaving the vast majority of its climate emissions unaddressed. This failure creates significant risk for the Company, investors, and the global climate.
Hartford has been identified as lagging many of its peers in the global insurance sector. While making progress in setting divestment policies for coal and tar sands, it does not have a broader climate plan to reduce the full range of its GHG emissions. In contrast, peers are beginning to address such financed emissions. Thirteen global insurers have also joined the United Nations’ Net Zero Insurance Alliance in which they commit to transition the emissions from their insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios to net zero by 2050.
To reduce climate risk and impact, Hartford should begin measuring and disclosing its financed emissions, and adopt targets aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5oC goal.
BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that The Hartford issue a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, addressing if and how it intends to measure, disclose, and reduce the GHG emissions associated with its underwriting, insuring, and investment activities, in alignment with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5oC goal, requiring net zero emissions.
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Shareholders recommend the report disclose at board discretion:
Whether The Hartford will begin measuring and disclosing the emissions associated with the full range of its operations and by when, and
Whether The Hartford will set a Paris aligned, net zero target, and on what timeline
Resolution Details
Company: Hartford Financial Services Group Inc
Lead Filers:
As You Sow
Year: 2022
Filing Date:
November 2021
Initiative(s): Climate Change
Status: Resolution Withdrawn, Agreement Reached