Inside Salisbury: Fossil Fuel protest as Extinction Rebellion call out Howden Insurance
Extinction Rebellion Salisbury: "Insurance is the fossil fuel industry’s Achilles’ heel"
by Annette J Beveridge
A VIGIL was held outside of a city centre insurance broker last week highlighting the fact that insurance is the fossil fuel industry’s Achilles heel.
Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) major national campaign Insure Our Survival came to Salisbury at the weekend demanding that the insurance industry stop insuring the fossil fuel projects that lead to global warming.
Di Cross who acts as an external coordinator for XR believes that without insurance, destructive projects cannot continue.
She said: “We are calling on insurance companies like Howden to stop insuring new oil, gas and coal development.”
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The climate action vigil took place outside Howden’s offices on Winchester Street. A letter was handed to the branch manager, David Willis to explain their presence and flyers were distributed to staff detailing how their internal influence could be used.
Internal coordinator for XR, Salisbury, Alex Raws, said: “Howden Insurance Group boasts about its sustainability and climate credentials but this hides a deadly secret – their plan to be ‘carbon neutral’ by 2030 only refers to their own operations.
“That’s the emissions from their offices, not the emissions from the many dirty oil, gas and coal projects that they insure all over the world.”
Activists held a banner reading ‘Insure our Survival - Not Fossil Fuels’ and carried placards reading, ‘Stop insuring climate criminals.’
They mounted an exhibition of posters by Gideon Mendel entitled ‘Portraits From A Drowning World’, which depicted images of people from around the globe affected by extreme weather events caused by climate change.
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Dr Richard Sharp from XR Salisbury added: “It is well known that global warming is likely to increase the intensity of heavy rainfall, and the Environment Agency has said that a quarter of all homes in the UK could be at risk of flooding by 2050 – that’s eight million properties.
“This will affect home-owners’ ability to get flood insurance and impact premiums for all of us which is ironic, as companies like Howden are currently insuring the very projects that will make extreme weather events more likely.”
Howden’s Insurance company has been contacted for a response.
