L’influence sous-exploitée des assureurs-vie sur leurs gestionnaires d’actifs

The document argues that French life insurance companies are undermining their own climate goals by delegating investments to asset managers that support fossil fuel expansion. It highlights a gap between the climate ambitions of insurers—some of whom have stopped new bond investments in fossil fuel expansion—and the practices of managers like BlackRock and JP Morgan Asset Management. Reclaim Finance calls for the implementation of science-based selection criteria, clear deadlines for manager compliance, and more public, collective engagement to reduce financial risks associated with climate change.

• French life insurance companies face a contradiction where they implement climate restrictions on their own investments but continue to use asset managers that support fossil fuel expansion. While 12 French insurers have stopped new bond investments in companies developing new oil and gas fields, and others like Suravenir, MACSF, MACIF, and MAIF have extended this to LNG export terminals, many still lack strict selection policies for the managers they delegate to.
• Major French insurers such as Suravenir, CNP Assurances, and Groupama offer funds from BlackRock and JP Morgan Asset Management in their unit-linked (UC) contracts, despite climate regressions from these managers. Specifically, BlackRock left the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) alliance and saw its support for environmental and social shareholder resolutions drop from 40% in 2021 to 2% in 2025.
• Most French life insurers lack clear climate requirements for external asset managers. Although some, including Abeille Assurances, Macif, CNP Assurances, Suravenir, and Groupama, have published requests regarding fossil fuel exclusion policies, they have not yet made the support of fossil fuel expansion a definitive 'red line' that would prevent the delegation of new investments.
• To align with a 1.5°C trajectory and mitigate financial risks—which the ECB estimates could cost the euro zone up to 5% of GDP by 2030—insurers should set deadlines for managers to stop supporting fossil fuel expansion. MAIF provides a precedent by stopping new investments in managers without a thermal coal phase-out strategy by 2030, starting in 2024.

APA

Manickawasagar, A. (2025). L’influence sous-exploitée des assureurs-vie sur leurs gestionnaires d’actifs. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2025/10/16/linfluence-sous-exploitee-des-assureurs-vie-sur-leurs-gestionnaires-dactifs/

Chicago

Manickawasagar, Aatiraï. L’influence sous-exploitée des assureurs-vie sur leurs gestionnaires d’actifs. Reclaim Finance, 2025. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2025/10/16/linfluence-sous-exploitee-des-assureurs-vie-sur-leurs-gestionnaires-dactifs/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Manickawasagar |first1=Aatiraï |title=L’influence sous-exploitée des assureurs-vie sur leurs gestionnaires d’actifs |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=16 October 2025 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2025/10/16/linfluence-sous-exploitee-des-assureurs-vie-sur-leurs-gestionnaires-dactifs/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{manickawasagar2025linfluence, author = {Manickawasagar, Aatiraï}, title = {{L’influence sous-exploitée des assureurs-vie sur leurs gestionnaires d’actifs}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2025/10/16/linfluence-sous-exploitee-des-assureurs-vie-sur-leurs-gestionnaires-dactifs/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }