Reinsurance — a practice in which an insurance company pays another insurer to cover its policy obligations — is an industry with a lot of financial power over other institutions. Without insurance coverage for major projects that carry a lot of risk, such as drilling for oil, these projects can't go forward. 

That's why Ariel Le Bourdonnec, a campaigner, hoped to see signs of climate awareness at a recent reinsurance symposium in Monte Carlo, but he was disappointed, Global Reinsurance reported.

What's happening?

Le Bourdonnec, an analyst for insurance and reinsurance at Reclaim Finance, attended RVS 2025 this year. He hoped to hear key industry figures acknowledge the increasing temperature of the planet as an issue and commit to stop insuring new fossil fuel developments — not to completely cut ties with the fossil fuel industry overnight, just to stop helping it expand.

However, according to Global Reinsurance, Le Bourdonnec found that the industry was much more focused on factors like urbanization and inflation.

"I'm not just frustrated; I'm lucid about this," he said, per the outlet.

Why is the attitude of the reinsurance industry important?

Every day across America, ordinary citizens make tiny and monumental changes in their lives to try to reduce their impact on the climate, whether that's using a little less electricity, recycling more, or completely overhauling their homes and vehicles to use cleaner energy sources.

Meanwhile, the largest polluters that are producing air pollution and increasing the temperature of the planet aren't individuals — they're major corporations, particularly the fossil fuel industry. 

To stop the runaway overheating of the Earth, we need to get a handle on these industries, and one way to do that would be to remove some or all of the financial protection of insurance that makes it so profitable to damage the planet. 

But according to Le Bourdonnec, the financial institutions that have the power to make this choice are choosing differently. They are not focused on global warming and what they can do to stop it. This means that the overheating — and the unstable, extreme weather that continues to arise as a result — will continue, at least until something else changes.

What else can be done about holding industries accountable?

Le Bourdonnec hopes that the issue will turn around by next year's symposium.

Meanwhile, regulators could also step in and put the brakes on the fossil fuel industry, while individuals can look for green banking options to help remove their own financial support.

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