Shaneen Marshall

Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) today affirmed its support and alignment with the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) climate change roadmap – Towards a Net Zero and Resilient Future.

The roadmap charts a path for how insurers can achieve net zero emissions in their operations by 2030 and across the entirety of their activities by 2050.

Zurich Insurance Group has been carbon neutral since 2014 and as a founding member of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) has committed to transition all operational and greenhouse gas emissions from its insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios to net zero by 2050.

Shaneen Marshall, Head of Strategy & Sustainability, Zurich Australia & New Zealand said: “The insurance industry has an important role to play in supporting Australia’s resilience to the effects of climate change whilst also contributing to our country’s net zero journey together with our customers, partners and employees.”

“Zurich has had ambitious net-zero targets for some time, and we are proud of the progress we have made. This transition requires significant collaboration and partnership, so joining forces with our industry to support the ICA climate change roadmap is an important step,” Ms Marshall said.

Globally, Zurich has committed to being net-zero in its operations by 2030, including:

• reducing absolute CO2e emissions from its operations by 50 per cent by 2025 and 70 per cent by 2029 (from 2019 levels)
• utilising 100 per cent renewable power across all global operations by the end of 2022
• maintaining a 100 per cent electric car fleet by the end of 2029.

In support of these targets, the Australia & New Zealand business has also committed to:

• reducing absolute emissions from local operations by 60 per cent by 2025 and 76 per cent by 2029 (from 2019 levels)
• reducing total CO2e emissions from printed paper by 50 per cent by 2023 and by 70 per cent by 2025 (against 2019 levels)
• a pilot with Reforest, a platform that connects businesses and their customers to remove CO2 and regenerate local ecosystems within Australia.

Zurich Insurance Group aims to fully decarbonise its investment portfolio by 2050 – a commitment that has already seen Zurich divest several high emitters in its portfolio – with the Australia & New Zealand business also reducing the carbon intensity of its local investment portfolio by 25 per cent by 2025 (from 2019 levels).

This builds on existing measures, including a strict global exclusion policy that prevents Zurich from underwriting or investing in companies that, amongst other things, generate more than 30 per cent of their revenue from mining thermal coal or oil shale.

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