Insurance company AXA announced today a series of initiatives to help fight deforestation and protect biodiversity, including plans to invest €1.5 billion to support sustainable forest management.
The company also stated plans to strengthen its investment and insurance requirements in activities that actively contribute to deforestation, targeting industries including soy, palm oil, timber, and cattle production.
As part of its new investment initiative, AXA has committed €500 million to reforestation projects in emerging countries. AXA anticipates its investments will enable 25 megatons of CO2 to be captured annually.
Thomas Buberl, the Chief Executive Officer of AXA, said:
“In the face of the climate emergency, and prior to the COP26, we are proud to extend our commitments and announce new measures to fight deforestation, protect forest ecosystems, and preserve biodiversity.”
The new initiatives follow the announcement last month that AXA has been selected as a member of the biodiversity-focused Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) initiative. Launched in June 2021, TNFD aims to deliver a framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks.
AXA stated that it is also joining the World Heritage Sites initiative, launched by the United Nations Principles for Sustainable Insurance and WWF, and that it will implement specific exclusions on its insurance activities to protect the main biodiversity reserves identified by UNESCO.
Buberl said:
“Forests represent 80% of the Earth’s biodiversity and play an essential role in the fight against climate change.”
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