CALIFORNIA REGULATOR CALLS FOR INSURERS TO DIVEST FROM THERMAL COAL

California insurance commissioner Dave Jones has called on insurers operating in the state to voluntarily sell their interests in thermal coal and not renew any investments. Jones also said that in April he will initiate a data call that will require insurers to make annual disclosures of their investments in oil, gas and coal. The Department of Insurance plans to make the data public and use it to assess the degree of financial risk posed to carriers by their investments in the carbon-based economy. “We will make this new information public so that investors, policyholders, regulators and the general public can know the extent to which insurance companies are invested in the carbon economy,” said Jones. “My decision to ask insurance companies to divest from thermal coal and to require insurance companies to disclose investments in the carbon economy arises from my statutory responsibility to make sure that insurance companies address potential financial risks in the reserves they hold to pay future claims.”