Insurance group AXA announced today a series of decarbonization targets for its investment and insurance activities, including goals to reduce emissions of its largest commercial insurance clients by 30% and to cut the carbon footprint of the group’s general account investment assets by 50% by 2030, on a 2019 basis.

The new goals, published with the release of the company’s 2023 Climate & Biodiversity Report, come shortly after AXA’s decision alongside several other major insurers to exit the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), amid anti-ESG political pressure in the U.S. At the time, AXA, who was a founding member and Chair of the NZIA, committed to continue using the toolsets developed in the alliance to pursue their individual decarbonization targets and support clients in their own climate transitions. The company remains a member of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance.

The new report also includes for the first time decarbonization targets for various AXA Property & Casualty insurance portfolios, including a goal to reduce the carbon intensity of the most material personal motor portfolios by 20%. In addition to the 30% emissions reduction target for the largest clients, the company also announced a goal to reduce the carbon intensity of other corporate clients by 20% by 2030 compared with a 2021 baseline.

Axa also introduced goals to increase its business in the renewable energies sector and across sectors transitioning to low carbon business models, and to strengthen dialogue with corporate customers, external stakeholders and partners, to better support them in the transition.

In the report, AXA also revealed that the “implied temperature rise,” which measures the 2050 warming impact of the group’s general account portfolio’s bond and equities holdings decreased by 0.1°C compared to the previous year, and now stands at 2.5°C, compared to the market average of 2.7°C.

Tomas Buberl, Chief Executive Officer, AXA, said:

“As insurers, we see the increasing risks that climate change and the loss of biodiversity pose to our economies and societies, and how they are intensifying. We will continue engaging with our clients and our stakeholders leveraging all the levers at our disposal, from prevention to investment, from the financing of scientific research to insurance, as well as partnerships and collaboration with private and public players.”