QBE says its ongoing climate change action program shows it is committed to tackling the threat as the insurer faces new pressure from environmental activists to do more to curb global warming.

Climate campaign group Market Forces today lodged a shareholder resolution with the backing of Australian Ethical, which owns QBE stock, demanding the insurer sets targets to reduce its investment in and underwriting exposure to coal-linked business.

The resolution needs the support of at least 100 shareholders for it to be taken up at the QBE annual general meeting in May.

But a QBE spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company sees climate change as a material business risk and supports “both the Paris Agreement and the goal of limiting global average temperature increases to well below two degrees Celsius”.

The spokesman says updates provided last week to the insurer’s 2018-2020 climate change action plan detail how the business intends to implement the G20-backed Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

“This includes actions in governance, strategy and risk management and our plans to develop short, medium and long-term targets, in line with the Paris Agreement,” the spokesman says.

“Consistent with our climate change action plan, during [this year] we are completing detailed analysis of climate-related risks and opportunities in priority underwriting portfolios, followed by a review of our underwriting strategy.”

The analysis will incorporate the work QBE has started as part of its involvement with a United Nations global pilot initiative to improve the industry’s climate risk disclosure.

The UN Environment Program Finance Initiative, which has the support of 16 insurers including IAG, aims to develop analytical tools for climate scenario analysis consistent with the TCFD recommendations.

“This will help inform the subsequent development of targets to manage our risk, consistent with our published plan,” the spokesman says.

Additionally, an internal review shows QBE has less than 1% of its investment portfolio in coal-related assets.

Market Forces says the insurer’s actions do not go far enough. It wants QBE to pull out completely from the fossil fuel business.

“QBE currently provides insurance for fossil fuel infrastructures so it actually helps the fossil fuel infrastructures get built by providing insurance and there is nothing in its climate change action plan or any other documents that stops it from continuing to do that,” Market Forces campaigner Pablo Brait told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“So it is, as we speak, helping the fossil fuel industry expand which goes against what needs to happen to limit global warming.”