By Big climate news in late December: insurance giant Liberty Mutual adopted a policy to stop insuring coal companies, just two months after we launched our campaign. It’s a big deal (and major testament to people power!) but the policy is not nearly bold enough to seriously address the climate crisis. Our campaign can’t – and won’t – stop here.
As the 5th largest property and casualty insurance company in the world, Liberty Mutual is still one of the biggest insurers of fossil fuels in the US and globally. It also invests $8.9 billion dollars in fossil fuel companies and utilities.
Need some more background on who Liberty Mutual is and why it’s a major climate villain? Check out this quick rundown we published a little while ago.
https://www.ran.org/the-understory/liberty-mutual/
Is Liberty Mutual’s new coal policy the best in the world? Not even close. Does it meet the urgency and scale of the climate emergency? No way. But even though the policy is limited, it is a welcome step in the right direction and one credited to the hard work of organizers and activists pushing Liberty Mutual to take the crisis seriously.
Thank you. This is the direct result of yourpressure. Over the last few months, tens of thousands of you have written letters to Liberty’s CEO David Long, called its headquarters continuously, and showed up (sometimes in blockades) outside Liberty Mutual’s offices from Boston to London to Seattle.
We hope you’re ready to keep going, because we need your help to get Liberty Mutual over the line.
Here’s the deal: Liberty Mutual needs to stop insuring ALL coal projects and tar sands in order to get us closer to slowing the climate crisis. It has a MASSIVE responsibility as one of the biggest insurers in the world, and it must follow the lead of peer insurers to phase out coal and tar sands.
This new coal policy shows that Liberty is listening to us closely. Well, we’re just getting started, and it’s time to turn up the heat.
Join us by telling Liberty Mutual that it MUST #InsureOurFuture.
