France's Axa sets first emissions goals for insurance portfolio

PARIS (Reuters) -Axa on Thursday set goals to limit emissions of climate-warming gases linked to the cars and companies it covers, but an activist group said the French company's first environmental targets for its insurance portfolio did not go far enough.

Europe's second-biggest insurer said it would aim for a 20% decrease in the carbon intensity of its largest individual motor insurance portfolios between 2019 and 2030 and a 30% drop in absolute carbon emissions from its largest corporate customers between 2021 and 2030.

"This is absolutely crucial and represents a genuine transformation of our insurance business," said Frederic de Courtois, Axa's deputy CEO in charge of finance.

Carbon intensity is a measure of emissions linked to a company's output, while absolute emissions refers to the total amount of emissions released.

Axa, which operates in 51 countries, also more than doubled its green target for its investment bank. It said it wants to reduce absolute emissions linked to assets in its general fund by 50% between 2019 and 2030, compared to a previous 20% goal.

"The announcement ... is a welcome first step, but it will not be enough to meet (Axa's) commitment to reach net zero by 2050," Ariel le Bourdonnec of advocacy group Reclaim Finance told Reuters by email.

Le Bourdonnec said Axa should not insure new gas fields or LNG terminals and stop renewing contracts for clients building new oil and gas production and transport projects from 2024.

A restriction on underwriting clients developing new coal capacity or with a significant involvement in the coal industry should also be extended to reinsurance treaties from Axa XL, Axa's main reinsurance business, le Bourdonnec added.

Credit Agricole is aiming to reduce absolute emissions from investment banking assets by 25%, but has not set a time frame. On insurance policies, the Axa competitor has said it will set up teams focused on "low emission damages".

(Reporting by Victor Goury-Laffont and Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Emma Rumney)