Manchester hosted part of Extinction Rebellion’s major national campaign ‘Insure Our Survival’. Hundreds from across the north hit the streets of Manchester to demand the insurance industry dump the climate-wrecking fossil fuel criminals and stop insuring new oil, gas and coal projects.
To highlight the climate crisis people wore extreme wet weather gear, even for Manchester, such as sou’westers and lifejackets. Carrying oars, banners and placards saying ‘Only Fools Insure Fossil Fuels’ and ‘Floody Hell’ they marched stopping outside major Insurers, Tokyo Marine, Liberty, Traveler, AXA & Markel. A group wearing hazmat suits created crime scenes outside Insurance companies with swathes of police tape & flood warning signs. A splinter group occupied the lobby of AIG on Deansgate for several hours with a large banner reading “Insure Our Future”. Despite peaceful requests, no staff came to engage with the group.
Lisa Ridley of Extinction Rebellion Manchester said:” We are here today because Insurance companies are still insuring fossil fuel projects that create the extreme weather that is flooding our homes and streets, threatening to destroy our food supply and kill billions. The fossil fuel industry needs insurance to go ahead with more digging and drilling for oil, gas and coal which is accelerating climate crisis. The Insurers could be climate heroes and use their ‘superpower’ to shut down the fossil fuel industry and help save our entire civilisation and the biosphere that we rely on for life. They could invest in renewable energy projects instead and ensure our survival. We are already seeing more extreme weather in the UK, with many areas flooding after days of heavy rain. Meanwhile house insurance prices are going up and in some places homeowners can’t even get insurance anymore.”
Sue Houseman from Lancaster from inside AIG Insurers said “I’m here to demand that AIG don’t insure 3 particularly deadly fossil fuel projects: the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda and Tanzania; the Adani Carmichael Coalmine in Australia; and Freeport LNG in Texas. We are reading out testimonies from African mothers which tell of the suffering and dehumanisation that projects like the EACOP are causing to ordinary families. Out of sight is not out of mind, the damage to us all is real and devastating. Insurers must put people before corporate greed and start insuring our survival, not our destruction”
XR’s Insure Our Survival campaign has already made the insurance industry sit up, take notice and act. In February, thousands of XR activists, acting alongside a global campaign coalition called Insure Our Future, staged a week-long series of actions across the world.
After repeated mass visits to the offices of insurers in the City of London and in towns and cities across the UK, giant global insurers Zurich announced that they would no longer insure new oil and gas projects.
Lisa Ridley added: ‘We know the insurance industry is listening, so we say: dump all new oil, gas and coal now – or we’ll keep coming back’.
