Insurer Allianz plans to reduce assets' climate impact by one quarter by 2025

Germany’s largest insurance company Allianz has set a new interim target for the restructuring of 800 billion euros in investments, the company announced in a press release. The company aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in equities and corporate bonds by a quarter by 2025 compared to 2019. This is a first interim target on the way to the company’s goal of climate-neutrality by 2050. The new reduction target will initially apply to certain asset classes only, namely listed shares and corporate bonds, Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted Allianz chief investment officer Günther Thallinger as telling news agency dpa. In addition, Allianz aims to bring real estate investments in line with a 1.5-degree-Celsius path by 2025, referring to the Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. "Other asset classes are in the pipeline. Step by step, we will thus cover our entire 800 billion euros of investments from the insurance business,” Thallinger said. The new target is part of the plans of the "Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance," which brings together 33 major international investors who collectively manage 5 trillion euros. Among others, German insurer Munich Re and the Swiss insurers Zurich and Swiss Re have also joined the initiative. 

In 2019, Allianz vowed to make all of its investments climate-neutral by 2050 and to no longer sell insurance coverage to coal companies, not least because the company itself is greatly exposed to the damages caused by rising global temperatures. Allianz has said that climate change, environmental destruction and natural disasters figure among the most important international “megatrends” that will shape its future business.