MAPFRE’s role in managing a fair energy transition for everyone

Societies mobilized and urged all companies, organizations and institutions to act decisively and/or accelerate all commitments related to the environmental lever of sustainability.

As in other similar situations, the large insurers were already working in this direction, both in relation to the quest for neutrality as issuers, that is, reducing our own footprint to a minimum, and above all through a more ambitious underwriting policy, which involves raising the environmental requirements for those companies or industries that we insure, to help them progressively transition from carbon-based economic models to others that are more environmentally friendly.

In this we are steadfast: there is simply no doubt that we all have to move toward more sustainable economic models that facilitate reversing the catastrophic effects being produced by climate change. It is up to us, the present generation, to say enough is enough and work to bequeath a very different scenario to those who will come after us. At MAPFRE we also believe that this urgency has to be compatible with a respect for the millions of people who depend on the current economic models for their livelihoods, which are monoculture economic activities in many regions of the world.

Economic decarbonization is essential for the planet, but also for the people who depend on the current model, which is why our commitment is to accompany and help our clients, and the people who rely on their activity, in that need to progress toward more environmentally sustainable activity. Plan by plan, year by year, we are raising underwriting requirements in relation to coal  ̶ both for extraction and as a fuel for an economic activity ̶  and tar sands. We will not insure coal-related extraction projects in the Arctic. These are among the commitments that we will present at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. Additionally, when assessing whether or not to insure new client companies, one of the factors that we will take into account is if they are committed to the energy transition plan that is required of all activities in order to halt the alarming global warming.

Our Sustainability Plan is based on each one of us #PlayingOurPart, in such a way that by combining effort and commitment, we are able to reverse the situation that mankind has created. We are also a company made up of people who take care of people, so we take care of the E for environmental, the S for social and the G for governance. Our ESG strategy must serve to enhance people’s lives, especially the most vulnerable among us. Taking firm steps forward, we are contributing to reversing a very worrying situation in relation to the planet, but we have no right to demand that the millions of people who still live off certain types of activities must pay the price to correct a deterioration that has been produced over centuries, and less so when we cannot offer them realistic and sustainable employment alternatives over time in exchange. The energy transition must be progressive and reasonably fast, but also fair.