The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) has abandoned its requirement for members to set or publish their greenhouse gas emission targets. The UN initiative, NZIA, is a consortium of the world’s largest insurers and reinsurers who have committed to transition their insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. A statement, released on 5 July, from the UN Environment Programme on the NZIA says: “Going forward, NZIA member companies have no obligation to set or publish targets. “[Instead], individual member companies will be responsible and publicly accountable for any targets they set, the methodologies used to set them, the timeline on which they decide to publish any targets, and the progress they are making.” This change in ruling follows a vast number of large insurers leaving the alliance, including the group’s former chair AXA, Allianz, Scor, Japan’s Sompo Holdings and Lloyd’s of London. The alliance has 12 remaining members, according to the NZIA website. The release, reiterating NZIA’s ongoing commitment to net-zero, says: “As before, NZIA members who publish their own decarbonisation targets and timelines do so unilaterally and independently. “The NZIA Target-Setting Protocol will serve as a voluntary best practice guide to aid in the accurate measurement, standardisation and comparability of science-based decarbonisation targets for insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios. This is to enhance overall transparency and accountability across the insurance industry on climate action.”
