ACTIVISTS gathered outside of an insurer in Reading as part of a global campaign in protest of the company’s alleged involvement in perpetuating climate change.
The actions were part of Insure Our Survival, a two-week global campaign in which activists targeted insurer offices with blockades, art-led protests, and creative disruptions.
The campaign has launched a boycott of AXA, AIG, and all their sub-brands, warning that Aviva and Allianz will be next if they continue to bankroll fossil fuels and genocide.
In Reading, protesters gathered outside AXA’s branch with placards reading “Boycott AXA” and “Stop Insuring Climate Criminals”, as well as handed out leaflets to staff to inform them of the involvement of the wider company in supporting climate breakdown and wars.
Organisers say the actions send a clear message that without insurance, fossil fuel and arms industries cannot operate.
Andrew Taylor, a campaigner for Boycott Bloody Insurance, said: “AXA and AIG claim to tackle risk.
“But in reality, they only serve to protect imperialist corporations committing genocide in Gaza, massacring communities and devastating the ecological support systems for all life on Earth.
“Every single organisation and institution is complicit until they cut all ties and boycott these deadly insurers.
“It is more than a matter of ethics–it is a matter of global justice, freedom and the survival of all life.”
Helen, a member of Insure Our Survival, said: “From the Niger Delta to the Gulf Coast, AXA is insuring carbon bombs that will blow past every climate limit and set our world on fire.
“These projects poison rivers, displace families, kill forests and drive us closer to collapse.”
An Extinction Rebellion statement read: “‘Today we showed that we won’t stand by while AXA and AIG bankroll destruction.
“This is just the start–we will keep up the pressure until these companies stop insuring climate chaos and war.”
An AXA Spokesperson said: “AXA regularly reviews and updates its different investment and underwriting policies to align with its broader climate and sustainability ambitions, while supporting its customers and the broader economy in their transition.
“For both pillars of our business, investment and insurance, we only support the most ambitious players in terms of transition.
“AXA’s revised energy policy of July 2023 includes strengthened criteria on coal as well as unconventional fossil fuels extraction.
“It also expands existing restrictions to include new gas exploration and development projects. This policy completes AXA’s intermediary decarbonization targets across our investment and insurance portfolios for 2030.”
