To Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg:
It is imperative that you listen to communities, allies, and science, and immediately stop insuring methane gas expansion in the U.S. Gulf Coast — and everywhere. By underwriting methane gas infrastructure in the Gulf, like Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG, your company is supporting the continued environmental racism in the region by perpetuating the displacement, pollution, and physical harm of impacted communities.
There’s nothing natural about methane gas expansion (aka so-called liquefied “natural” gas or LNG). As you know, methane gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. Methane gas continues to be touted by industry, governments, and insurance companies as a “bridge fuel,” even after the International Energy Agency stated that in their special report, Net Zero by 2050: A Road Map for the Global Energy Sector, “No new natural gas fields are needed in the Net Zero Emissions beyond those already under development. Also not needed are many of the LNG liquefaction facilities currently under construction or at the planning stage.”
You have publicly acknowledged that time is running out for transformative action to tackle the climate crisis. As the IPCC report puts it: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.” Lengthy “transition periods” to continue business as usual are simply too little too late. You must take urgent action, like you did with Rio Grande LNG, by ruling out methane-intensive projects, such as Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG.
Methane is highly volatile, and this build-out poses especially dangerous explosion risks. Look no further than the huge explosion at Freeport LNG in June 2022 that resulted in a 450-foot fireball. The empirical explosive risk of these facilities is an alarming warning to any sensible, risk-averse insurer.
We call on you to take concrete steps to align with a world in which climate change is limited to 1.5°C and, human rights are fully respected:
1. Immediately cease insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.
2. Immediately stop insuring any new customers from the fossil fuel sector which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C pathway, and stop offering any insurance services which support the expansion of coal, oil and gas production even among existing customers. By the end of 2025, completely phase out all insurance services for existing fossil fuel company customers which have not published such a transition plan.
3. Immediately divest all assets, including assets managed for third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies which have not published a transition plan aligned with a credible 1.5°C scale up investments in a just, equitable, and rapid global transition to a clean energy economy.
4. Immediately define and adopt binding targets for reducing your insured emissions which are transparent, comprehensive and aligned with a credible 1.5°C pathway.
5. Explore ways to bring fossil fuel companies to court in order to make polluters rather than insurance customers pay for the growing costs of climate disasters.
6. Immediately establish, and adopt as policy, robust due diligence and verification mechanisms to ensure clients fully respect and observe all human rights, including a requirement that they obtain and document the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of impacted Indigenous Peoples as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
7. Immediately bring stewardship activities, membership of trade associations and public positions as a shareholder and corporate citizen in line with a credible 1.5°C pathway in a transparent way.
As a leading global property and casualty insurer, your company has the power and responsibility to become a true climate leader. You must expand on your existing climate commitments by listening to Indigenous and impacted communities and make crucial changes for people and the planet by publicly ruling out methane expansion in the Gulf Coast — and everywhere.
You cannot claim to be a “steward for the earth” while continuing to prop up the polluters who are risking us all. We need meaningful climate solutions before it’s too late.