UNEP executive director: insurance companies ‘need to do more to meet climate targets’

Insurance companies must take additional steps to meet 2030 climate targets, according to Inger Andersen, UN under-secretary-general and executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In a speech delivered for the 10th anniversary of UNEP’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative, Andersen, argued that while some progress has been made in the sector, insurance companies had ”not done enough”. She added: "The entire insurance industry value chain of insurers, reinsurers, brokers and agents – along with insurance associations and insurance regulators – must make sustainability an integral part of their decision-making". Andersen stressed the need to create institutional capacities within insurance companies that can support the broader industry's net-zero ambitions.