They sent a [pointed letter](https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/letter-to-aig) to AIG in June, charging that its continued investment in projects such as a Canadian pipeline that will ship some of the world’s most heavily polluting oil to British Columbia and a huge liquefied natural gas terminal in Australia belie AIG’s promise to reorient its business toward the targets in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. That agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“We have seen little evidence so far that the insurance industry is taking meaningful action to align its investment and underwriting decisions with the Paris Agreement,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the committee chair, wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
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When insurance giant AIG rattled the industry last year with an [audacious plan](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220301005761/en/AIG-Commits-to-Net-Zero-Greenhouse-Gas-GHG-Emissions-Across-its-Underwriting-and-Investment-Portfolios-by-2050) to stop writing policies for some of the most heavily polluting fossil fuel projects, environmentalists and lawmakers showered the company with plaudits.
Now they are quickly [losing patience](https://www.citizen.org/news/aig-2023-fossil-fuel-scorecard/) with it.
Like so many other large companies pledging to help the world avert climate catastrophe, AIG is finding that making such vows is easier than making good on them. The company is now a target of a [Senate investigation](https://www.budget.senate.gov/chairman/newsroom/press/budget-committee-launches-investigation-into-major-insurance-companies-climate-risk-evaluation-fossil-fuel-support-) into the insurance industry, led by lawmakers who warn that AIG and other companies continue to play a pivotal role in underwriting some of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects in the world — despite lofty climate promises.
They sent a [pointed letter](https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/letter-to-aig) to AIG in June, charging that its continued investment in projects such as a Canadian pipeline that will ship some of the world’s most heavily polluting oil to British Columbia and a huge liquefied natural gas terminal in Australia belie AIG’s promise to reorient its business toward the targets in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. That agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“We have seen little evidence so far that the insurance industry is taking meaningful action to align its investment and underwriting decisions with the Paris Agreement,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the committee chair, wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
AIG, which declined to comment or share its response to questions about its climate pledge from the committee, is hardly unusual. Over the last year,[ Amazon retreated](https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/shipment-zero-update.pdf) from an effort to zero out the emissions of half its shipments by 2030. Shell Oil [dropped ](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-31/shell-silently-abandoned-its-100-million-a-year-plan-to-offset-co2-emissions)an ambitious initiative to build a pipeline of carbon credits through investment in forest preservation and other carbon-absorbing projects worldwide. And BP — which embraced the energy transition with its green starburst logo and “Beyond Petroleum” slogan — [significantly scaled back](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/07/bp-climate-emissions-oil-profits/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10) its plan to reduce emissions by as much as 35 percent by the end of the decade.
As the planet heats up at an alarming pace, these turnabouts expose the shortcomings of leaving it up to voluntary corporate action to solve an existential crisis, said John Lang, the project lead at Net Zero Tracker, a group that [monitors progress](https://zerotracker.net/insights/net-zero-targets-among-worlds-largest-companies-double-but-credibility-gaps-undermine-progress) on corporate and government climate pledges.
“There is a massive credibility gap with these corporate targets,” he said. “We need more regulation. Otherwise, the dial just will not turn.”
**Read more, free with email registration:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/03/climate-corporate-cop28/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/03/climate-corporate-cop28/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)