Fund manager Australian Ethical Investment has sold its stock in US-listed Marsh & McLennan Companies because of broking subsidiary Marsh’s involvement with the Adani coal mine in central Queensland.

The stock was held in its Australian Ethical International Shares Fund and was disposed of last month for $5 million.

Australian Ethical has also decided to drop JLT as a broker for its insurance needs, and is looking for new brokers. JLT was acquired by Marsh last April for $US5.6 billion ($8.09 billion).

“The reason for the divestment is our assessment that Marsh has provided insurance services to facilitate the development of the Adani Carmichael coal mine,” Head of Ethics Research Stuart Palmer told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“Marsh has subsequently failed to provide a clear public commitment not to provide services to support projects of this type in the future.”

He says the project is “fundamentally inconsistent” with the objectives of the United Nations-backed Paris Agreement to curb greenhouse emissions globally.

“As a result we have assessed that the company is not aligned with our ethical charter, including our ethical criteria for financial services and insurance companies,” Dr Palmer said.

Last month Marsh was named in a newspaper report as the broker that arranged the insurance program for the Adani mine. Marsh has consistently declined to comment.