L’ASSURANCE-VIE À L’ÈRE DE L’URGENCE CLIMATIQUE

The report finds a significant gap between the climate commitments of French life insurers and their actual investment practices. While most have pledged to stop funding new coal projects in their 'fonds euro', many continue to invest in oil and gas expansion. A critical 'blind spot' exists in 'unités de compte' (UC), where 63% of analyzed funds contain fossil fuel developers, including in products labeled as 'responsible' or 'ESG'. The report calls for regulators to mandate an 'eco-score' and extend ISR labeling to 'fonds euro' to protect savers from greenwashing.

• A significant discrepancy exists between the climate commitments of French life insurers and their actual investments, with many failing to stop the expansion of fossil fuels despite pledging to align with a 1.5°C trajectory.
• Regarding 'fonds euro', which represent nearly 75% of life insurance assets, almost all analyzed insurers have committed to stopping new coal investments, except for Milleis Vie and HSBC Assurances Vie.
• Unités de compte (UC) are largely excluded from climate commitments, creating a major loophole as their share of annual gross collections rose from 12% in 2012 to over 40% in recent years.
• An analysis of over 8,100 UC revealed that 63% contain at least one fossil fuel developer, with 22% containing a coal developer. TotalEnergies is present in 26% of the analyzed UC.
• There is evidence of misleading labeling; 55% of the 1,745 UC analyzed that use terms such as 'responsible', 'climate', 'sustainable', 'green', 'impact', 'ESG', or 'ISR' still contain fossil fuel developers.
• Major French insurers, including Crédit Agricole Assurances, AXA France Vie, and BNP Paribas Cardif Vie, are identified as laggards in stopping support for oil and gas expansion.
• Approximately 25% of 'fonds euro' assets are not covered by climate policies, particularly indirect investments in open-ended funds, which totaled over 356 billion euros at the end of 2020.
• JP Morgan Asset Management is the primary provider of funds linked to fossil fuel developers distributed as UC, followed by Amundi and Fidelity International.

APA

Le Bourdonnec, A. (2024). L’ASSURANCE-VIE À L’ÈRE DE L’URGENCE CLIMATIQUE. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Rapport-Lassurance-vie-a-lere-de-lurgence-climatique.pdf

Chicago

Le Bourdonnec, Ariel. L’ASSURANCE-VIE À L’ÈRE DE L’URGENCE CLIMATIQUE. Reclaim Finance, 2024. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Rapport-Lassurance-vie-a-lere-de-lurgence-climatique.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Le Bourdonnec |first1=Ariel |title=L’ASSURANCE-VIE À L’ÈRE DE L’URGENCE CLIMATIQUE |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=5 June 2024 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Rapport-Lassurance-vie-a-lere-de-lurgence-climatique.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lebourdonnec2024lassurancevie, author = {Le Bourdonnec, Ariel}, title = {{L’ASSURANCE-VIE À L’ÈRE DE L’URGENCE CLIMATIQUE}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Rapport-Lassurance-vie-a-lere-de-lurgence-climatique.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }