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Exclusive-Insurers look to ease UN climate alliance rules after member exodus – sources
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant powered by lignite, in Zlobnica, Poland October 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki/File Photo
By Tommy Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) -The remaining insurers in a United Nations-backed coalition aimed at tackling climate change are poised to loosen the alliance’s membership requirements, after a recent exodus of members, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The U.N.-convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) is set to remove a six-month deadline for members to publish greenhouse gas emissions targets alongside other changes to make membership less prescriptive, the sources said.
The hope is to “steady the ship” and create space for ex-members to consider returning later, they said. The NZIA has lost more than half its members including AXA, Lloyd’s of London and Tokio Marine since attorneys general from 23 Republican-run U.S. states sent a May 15 letter seeking information about insurers’ membership and threatening legal action.
The attorneys general said the NZIA’s requirements for members to publish and meet greenhouse gas emission-reduction targets appeared to violate antitrust laws, and that the alliance’s actions had pushed up insurance and other costs for consumers. Launched in 2021 to drive insurers’ efforts to hit zero emissions on a net basis by 2050 in their underwriting portfolios, the NZIA is one of several industry coalitions under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) umbrella group.
The NZIA now has 12 members, down from a peak of 30. Other GFANZ alliances have also faced U.S. political pressure but have not seen many members leave.
CONCERN FROM CAMPAIGNERS The NZIA’s ‘target-setting protocol’ published in January required insurers to publish their initial 2030 targets for reducing emissions by end-July, or within six months of joining for newer entrants, and then report their progress against the targets annually. But remaining members, among them Britain’s Aviva (LON:), Italy’s Generali (BIT:) and South Korea’s Shinhan Life, want to avoid insurers publishing targets simultaneously, which could invite fresh accusations of anti-competitive collaboration, the first source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
An NZIA spokesperson declined to comment.
The potential for looser rules was met with concern by environmental campaigners, who say insurers are already doing too little to curb emissions and that aggressive collective action is needed.
“The NZIA has had very minimal requirements and expectations of membership from the start,” said Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Insure our Future campaign.
The alliance, Bosshard said, developed less stringent requirements – such as not restricting fossil fuel underwriting – than another investor coalition, the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance, precisely to avoid accusations it was breaching anti-trust laws.
“The target-setting is the only thing left,” he added. Without such requirements “the NZIA would just become another industry talking shop”.
Other proposals being discussed include making the alliance a broader forum where insurance industry bodies participate in areas like target-setting best practice, the first source said.
The changes under discussion have not been finalised, the sources said, and it’s not clear how the alliance would deal with insurers that drag their feet in publishing targets.
U.S. EXPOSURE
Insurers inside and outside the NZIA say they remain committed to their net-zero pledges despite the backlash in the United States.
They are convinced they are not violating antitrust rules, but companies departing the coalition were concerned about their exposure to regulatory and litigation risks, given U.S. states are the industry’s primary regulator. Insurers with little U.S. exposure have also been quitting, threatening the alliance’s viability.
Insurance Australia Group declined to explain its exit last month. Canada’s Beneva said the U.S. political debate around environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria was “a distraction from the actions around which the company wishes to rally”.
Remaining members believe the NZIA still has a valuable role, and point to methodologies it developed for assessing and reporting on underwriting-linked emissions. France’s AXA, which chaired the NZIA before quitting in May, last week published its first emissions goals for its insurance portfolio.
By Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
“I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health (NS:) Law.
The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The plan, which aligns with Trump’s longstanding criticism of the U.N. health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in U.S. global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major U.S. health agencies including the CDC and FDA.
Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect U.S. contributions to domestic health initiatives.
A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec. 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.
Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the U.S. time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.
Critics warn that a U.S. withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.
“The U.S. would lose influence and clout in global health and China would fill the vacuum. I can’t imagine a world without a robust WHO. But U.S. withdrawal would severely weaken the agency,” Gostin said.
U.Today – MicroStrategy has made headlines again by purchasing 5,262 BTC for approximately $561 million at an average price of $106,662 per BTC. The company now holds a staggering 444,262 BTC, accumulated at a total cost of approximately $27.7 billion, with an average purchase price of $62,257 per BTC.
Despite impressive returns of 47.4% since the beginning of the quarter and 73.7% since the beginning of the year, skepticism about the company’s strategy is growing.
It is believed that to sustain its purchases, MicroStrategy raises capital through methods such as issuing convertible and corporate bonds, securing credit lines and selling shares.
This cycle appears to operate as follows: shares are sold to acquire the cryptocurrency, and the rising price per BTC increases asset value, enabling further loans, which are then reinvested in more purchases.
Some observers warn that a significant decline in Bitcoin’s price or MicroStrategy’s stock could trigger a cascade effect. A sharp fall in MSTR shares would weaken the collateral backing its loans, potentially leading to forced asset sales, including BTC.
This scenario could exert downward pressure on the broader cryptocurrency market, as the company holds 2.2% of the global Bitcoin supply now.
Thus, while some view Michael Saylor’s approach as a bold bid to cement the cryptocurrency’s role in the financial system, others see it as unsustainable. History offers a cautionary note: in 2000, MSTR shares surged to $333 before plummeting 99%, a collapse that took 24 years to recover from.
National homebuilder ranked No. 12 on inaugural list ranking companies based on trust
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — With a longstanding reputation for trust, national homebuilder and land developer Taylor Morrison (NYSE:) (NYSE: ™HC) has been recognized by Forbes on their inaugural list of the Most Trusted Companies in America. The homebuilder ranked No. 12 out of 300 companies across all industries.
“There are few things more powerful than trust and it’s something we strive to earn amongst all company stakeholders, from our customers to our team members, our shareholders, and our local communities,” said Taylor Morrison Chairman and CEO Sheryl Palmer. “To be included on this esteemed list in its inaugural year is especially meaningful and these awards are important reminders of the relationships we’re building across all aspects of our business.”
Fueled by hundreds of millions of data points, the Most Trusted Companies in America list combines data on a wide range of factors across four categories: employee trust, customer trust, investor trust and media sentiment. The ranking was created in partnership with research companies HundredX, Signal AI and Glassdoor.
Taylor Morrison also earned the No. 67 spot on Forbes’ inaugural America’s Best Companies list. The ranking is Forbes’ most comprehensive company ranking to date and factored in ratings for financial performance, customer and employee satisfaction, cybersecurity, sustainability, companies’ remote work policies, media coverage and more. Forbes’ America’s Best Companies list assessed more than 60 metrics across 11 primary categories to identify which organizations excel across the board. Of the more than 2,000 U.S.-based publicly traded companies that were eligible, only 300 qualified for each list.
In addition to being named among the Most Trusted and Best Companies in America by Forbes, Taylor Morrison holds several additional accolades including being named on Newsweek’s America’s Most Responsible Companies and America’s Greenest Companies lists, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Companies to Work For list, the American Opportunity (SO:) Index, America’s Most Trusted ® Home Builder for nine years, Hearthstone’s 2021 BUILDER Humanitarian Award, and inclusion on the Fortune 500 list since 2021.
About Taylor Morrison
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is one of the nation’s leading homebuilders and developers. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and resort lifestyle homebuyers and renters under our family of brands”including Taylor Morrison, Esplanade and Yardly. From 2016-2024, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America’s Most Trusted ® Builder by Lifestory Research. Our long-standing commitment to sustainable operations is highlighted in our annual Sustainability and Belonging Report.
For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com.
CONTACT:
media@taylormorrison.com
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