Planet
There’s no net-zero without nature
At the Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich), we are prioritizing emissions reductions across our own operations in line with science-based targets, while also engaging and supporting other stakeholders across our value chain with their own transitions. We are equally determined to support customers and communities to better manage climate risk and improve resilience against it. We embrace new opportunities to better protect biodiversity and other natural assets, such as funding forest protection, ecosystem restoration and carbon removal projects.
Climate and nature are inextricably intertwined. Climate change is a driver of biodiversity loss, while biodiversity offers some of the most effective mitigation and adaption solutions to climate change.
Given this mutual dependency, our approach is to address climate and nature together, recognising that there can be no net-zero without nature.
Decarbonization
Engaging, reducing and investing in a net-zero future
Significant reductions in greenhouse emissions are required over the next 10 years to achieve the outcomes of the Paris agreement. This transition to a net-zero economy will bring its own risks in the form of potential cost to businesses from the introduction of policy, laws and other regulations designed to address climate change. Transitional risks and opportunities can also arise from changes in technologies and consumer trends, which may also lead to reputational impacts as society changes its view on ethical business practices.
We are committed to aligning our business activities with a net-zero future. Across Investment and Underwriting, which form the largest part of our emissions footprint, our decarbonisation approach is based on achieving targeted reductions through a process of engagement, in which we work with our customers and investee companies to understand how they are reducing emissions, influence them to build transition plans and encourage them to make commitments to reduce emissions.
As a founding member of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, we committed in 2019 to holding a net-zero investment portfolio by 2050. Achieving this goal requires ambitious carbon emissions reductions targets. Our interim targets address three key areas on the road to decarbonization:
- Emissions reductions in the portfolio.
- Engagement with companies to bring about change.
- Direct investment in solutions.
For our insurance underwriting portfolio, Zurich is committed to:
- Transitioning greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with our underwriting portfolios to net-zero emissions by 2050 consistent with a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100 in order to contribute to the implementation of the COP21 Paris Agreement.
- Set intermediate, science-based targets in line with article 4.9 of the Paris Agreement.
Zurich’s operations have been carbon neutral since 2014 but we want to go even further. Through a wide range of initiatives, we are accelerating the reductions of our operational footprint, and target net-zero operations by 2030.
* GHG emissions here refer to insurers’ and reinsurers’ Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Insurers’ and reinsurers’ Scope 3 emissions should include their clients’ Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3 emissions, where significant, and where data allow
