Australian Insurer QBE To Exit Thermal Coal Over Climate Change

Reuters - Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE - Australia’s QBE Insurance Group Ltd plans to stop offering new policies for thermal coal mines and coal-fired power stations to help encourage a low carbon economy and combat climate change.

A man waits in front of a QBE Insurance Group headquarters in central Sydney May 19, 2008. QBE Insurance Group Ltd, Australia's top insurer by premium income, raised its bid for smaller rival insurance Australia Group Ltd to $8.3 billion but said it thought the new and final offer would be rejected. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA)

The country’s third-largest insurer said it aims to phase out all direct insurance services for thermal coal customers by 2030, but will still invest in and insure metallurgical coal and oil and gas companies.
Fossil fuel divestment has gathered pace over the past few years as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and universities have sold oil, gas and coal stocks, especially after the 2015 Paris climate agreement set a goal of phasing out the use of fossil fuels this century.
Eleven major re-insurers including Allianz, AXA SA, Swiss Re, Munich Re, Zurich have restricted underwriting for coal, according to Melbourne-based non-government organization Market Forces.
“We are acutely aware of the risks and opportunities that climate change presents for our customers and our business,” QBE said in a weekend statement.
From July 1, it will no longer offer any new direct insurance services for construction projects for thermal coal mines, coal-fired power stations or thermal coal transport infrastructure, it said.
QBE will also target zero direct investments from the thermal coal industry by July 1, while restricting any coal exposure to half a percent of total funds under management.
The insurer has been restructuring its business after 2017’s record annual loss when hurricanes swept the Atlantic and earthquakes rattled Mexico, selling its Latin American and some underperforming units.
Thermal coal is used primarily for heat, while metallurgical coal is typically used to produce steel.
An insurance division of BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, said last month said it would no longer finance power generation companies where coal-fired power accounts for more than 30 percent of installed capacity.

Links

• QBE acts on climate change
• Why more insurance companies are taking an ethical stance against insuring coal
• Lloyd's warned over legal risks of underwriting a controversial coal mine project in Australia
• Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia?
• Climate change on track to make world 'uninsurable': IAG
• Insurers act on climate change exposure

Climate Change Threatens Millions Of Bangladeshi Children, Warns UNICEF

SBS News - Charlotte Lam

A new report shows environmental disasters linked to climate change are threatening the lives and futures of more than 19 million children in Bangladesh, including prompting many families to push their daughters into child marriages.



Climate change in Bangladesh could impact the lives of more than 19 million children, according to a new UNICEF report.
The humanitarian agency said on Friday that the country’s flat topography, dense population and weak infrastructure makes it “uniquely vulnerable to the powerful and unpredictable forces that climate change is compounding”.
The report author, Simon Ingram, said the danger was "flooding is extreme and it is almost on an annual basis”.

The lives and futures of more than 19 million children in Bangladesh are threatened by environmental disasters, according to a new report. AP

The report, titled "Gathering Storm: Climate change clouds the future of children in Bangladesh", showed about 12 million children currently live in and around powerful river systems, which flow through Bangladesh and regularly burst their banks.
Another 4.5 million children live in coastal areas, which are regularly struck by powerful cyclones, including almost half a million Rohingya refugee children from neighbouring Myanmar - living in makeshift bamboo and plastic shelters.



A further 3 million Bangladeshi children live in farming communities, which are facing increasing periods of drought.
The report also found a link between climate change and child marriage, child labour and access to education is evident in various parts of Bangladesh.
"Climate change is undoubtedly increasing the number of children who are pushed into the workplace, where they miss out on an education and are terribly exposed to violence and abuse," UNICEF Bangladesh Child Protection specialist Kristina Wesslund said.

Rohingya Muslim girl Afeefa Bebi, holds her brother as doctors check her mother Yasmeen Ara at a community hospital in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh 2017. AP

Bangladesh has one of the world's highest rates of child marriage, with nearly a third of girls married before the age of 15.
Child protection specialist Gyas Uddin agreed with the report's findings.
"Climate change makes people poorer and poverty is a major factor behind child marriage," he told AFP.
In 2007, a powerful cyclone killed nearly 4000 people and impacted hundreds of thousands more.

Bangladeshi children walk along streets submerged by rainwater in Old Dhaka city last year, after heavy monsoon rains flooded parts of the capital. EPA

The most recent flooding of the Brahmaputra River in 2017 damaged 50,000 tube wells, which impacted safe, drinking water and had almost 500 health clinics bursting at the seams with residents needing urgent medical treatment.
"This had an enormous effect not just in terms of displacing families and pushing them out of their homes,” Mr Ingram said, adding the “destruction that it caused to health facilities and to basic services like water and sanitation”.
UNICEF also said a change in climate was pushing poorer Bangladeshis from rural areas and into the capital Dhaka and other major cities for resources, where children's rights can be violated.

Rohingya Muslim women, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, hold their sick children. AP

Mr Ingram said there were already six million climate refugees in Bangladeshi cities, a number that could double by 2050.
Rising sea levels leading to unchecked saltwater intrusion also posed a threat to pregnant women, with the report showing an increased risk of medical conditions, including pre-eclampsia and hypertension, identified among mothers-to-be at the coast.

Links

• Millions of Bangladeshi children at risk from climate crisis, warns UNICEF
• Climate change threatens lives and futures of over 19 million children in Bangladesh
• Climate change threatens 19 million Bangladesh childrens’ lives, future: UNICEF report
• Climate change threat to millions of Bangladeshi children
• How climate change is forcing vulnerable children into sex trafficking
• Climate change blights children's lives in Bangladesh
• Climate Change Creates A New Migration Crisis For Bangladesh
• Bangladesh Kids Turn The Tide On Climate Change Aboard Floating Schools
• Government 'failing' on climate change: poll