Swiss Re joins exodus from NZIA

Swiss Re has become the latest reinsurer to announce its exit from the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA).

The financial giant, which only four months ago spoke about being a founding member of the NZIA, said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it was leaving the NZIA, but did not cite its reasons for its doing so.

Its departure comes just weeks after Hannover Re, Zurich Insurance, and Munich Re also said that they were leaving the NZIA.

The NZIA is a UN-convened initiative, launched at the G20 Climate Summit in 2021.

Hannover Re announced it was leaving the NZIA in April, saying at the time it was leaving ‘after careful consideration’. It also reaffirmed its broader commitment to environmental causes.

It said: “Regardless of this, Hannover Re remains committed to its sustainability strategy, the associated goals and its support for the Paris Agreement and aims to achieve full climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest.”

Swiss insurer Zurich previously said it was choosing to focus its efforts on supporting its customers’ decarbonisation efforts.

In its statement in March, Munich Re cited US antitrust risks as a reason for limiting the scope of its decarbonisation goals.

Joachim Wenning, CEO of Munich Re, said at the time: “In our view, the opportunities to pursue decarbonisation goals in a collective approach among insurers worldwide without exposing ourselves to material antitrust risks are so limited that it is more effective to pursue our climate ambition to reduce global warming individually.”