U.S. health industry asked to divest from fossil fuels
"It is time for these companies to align their investments with their healing mission," says a physician with one of the medical-environmental groups.
A group of nearly 60 health and environment activist groups sent a letter recently calling upon the U.S. health insurance industry to divest from fossil fuels.
The top 10 U.S. health insurance companies with publicly available investment data have $24 billion invested in fossil fuels, according to new analysis from Physicians for Social Responsibility and Insure Our Future released with the letter.
“Extracting and burning fossil fuels damages our respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems and wreaks damage on the environment,” said Barbara Gottlieb, director of Environment & Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It also drives climate change. How can health and life insurance companies rationalize supporting such life-damaging activities? They shouldn’t.”
The letter asked the industry to take three specific actions:
- Divest assets from all coal, oil and gas companies that are not aligned with a 1.5°C pathway.
- Bring stewardship activities, membership of trade associations, and public positions as shareholders and corporate citizens more broadly in line with a 1.5ºC pathway in a transparent way. This must include forceful advocacy for a green and just recovery from COVID-19.
- Reinvest into climate solutions that safeguard public health, including but not limited to renewable energy, energy and water efficiency, and sustainable food systems.
“As an emergency physician, I am troubled that health insurers are investing in fossil fuel companies which directly harm human health and contribute to the climate crisis,” said Amy Collins, MD, senior clinical advisor for Physician Engagement at Health Care Without Harm.
“It is time for these companies to align their investments with their healing mission by divesting from industries that harm public health and the overall health of the planet.”
More than 100 financial institutions — including more than 30 insurers worldwide — have pledged some divestment from fossil fuels, according to the letter’s sponsors.
But among U.S. health and life insurers, thus far only MetLife, which provides both types of insurance, has taken steps toward restricting some investments in the coal and tar sands sectors.
The investment data also look at life insurers, but advocates focused their demands on health insurers.
The data are based on self-reported figures from the California Department of Insurance Climate Risk Carbon Initiative. The latest figures are from 2017 but have never before been cross-referenced with a focus on top-tier insurers.
“The burdens of health harms from climate impacts unfairly fall the hardest on low-income communities, many of which are black, indigenous and Latinx, and on our children,” the letter concluded. “Global scientific community consensus recognizes that a rapid transition from a fossil fuel economy to a clean energy future is necessary to address climate change. This includes accelerating the rate at which insurers, including the health insurance industry, end financial investment in fossil fuel industries. Continuing to invest in the industries driving the climate crisis undermines the health of patients in America and abroad.”
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