Rome, April 29, 2021- On the occasion of the Annual General Meeting of Assicurazioni Generali, ReCommon remains concerned by the group’s strategy on climate change, hoping that its new version – currently under review – will definitively put an end to the financial support to coal provided by the insurance group.
Answers to questions submitted by ReCommon before the Meeting do not show a bold commitment to abandon coal, paving the way for possible “exceptions”, thus doubling what we already witnessed in regard to the main coal companies in Central and Eastern Europe, namely PGE and ČEZ, who currently are in Generali’s portfolio. In particular, the insurance company recognizes the need to definitively abandon coal in Europe by 2030, as recently urged by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and as requested by the international scientific community, though it underlines the need as well to “take into account the large regional differences existing within the EU”. That’s an implicit reference to Generali’s high financial interests in Poland and the Czech Republic, countries continuing to postpone the closing date of coal mines and plants jeopardizing the ecological transition in Europe.
Generali must turn words into action. A just transition is not compatible with decarbonization plans based on fossil gas, depicted as “natural” or “transition fuel”.
Rather, we welcome the position taken by the group on oil&gas, as recently urged by ReCommon and Greenpeace Italy. Generali will make public the exclusion criteria for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the upcoming weeks. In addition, the group affirms to adopt exclusion criteria on midstream oil&gas: unfortunately, these criteria are still unknown to the general public and we look forward to reading them on Generali’s official pages.
More information on Generali’s support to European coal available here:
