Asian insurers’ reluctance to curb liquefied natural gas (LNG) cover in the Coral Triangle is putting the world’s richest marine ecosystem at risk, campaigners have warned, as governments marked World Oceans Day on Monday.
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Some of the region’s biggest insurance and reinsurance firms have refused to adopt blanket exclusions on LNG expansion in the Coral Triangle, despite mounting evidence that new fossil fuel infrastructure threatens biodiversity and the millions of people who depend on coastal ecosystems for food and livelihoods, according to Insure Our Future, a global coalition of nonprofits and social movements that holds the insurance industry to account for its role in the climate crisis.
The group wrote to 30 leading insurance and reinsurance companies, urging them to rule out cover for fossil gas expansion in the Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.
Japanese insurers were among those that declined to introduce new safeguards for the Coral Triangle, while Chinese insurers also refused to commit to withdrawing support for LNG projects in the region. Insurers headquartered in Australia, Europe and North America similarly stopped short of ruling out future backing for LNG developments, campaigners said.
Most major insurers acknowledged biodiversity concerns and pointed to existing biodiversity policies, environmental risk assessments and protections for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites, Ramsar wetlands and certain International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected areas. But they stopped short of adopting Coral Triangle–specific measures to restrict support for new fossil gas projects, the group added.
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If insurers are serious about protecting nature, they must move beyond narrow exclusions and stop enabling the fossil fuel expansion threatening the resilience of the entire region.
Isabelle L’Héritier, senior strategist and campaigner, The Sunrise Project
“There is a gap between what insurers say about biodiversity and what they are willing to do in practice. The Coral Triangle is not a handful of isolated protected areas that can be safeguarded one site at a time, it is the world’s richest marine ecosystem,” said Isabelle L’Héritier, senior strategist and campaigner at Australia-based nonprofit The Sunrise Project.
“If insurers are serious about protecting nature, they must move beyond narrow exclusions and stop enabling the fossil fuel expansion threatening the resilience of the entire region.”
Often dubbed the “Amazon of the Sea”, the Coral Triangle contains around three-quarters of the world’s coral species and more than 2,000 species of reef fish, and supports the livelihoods of more than 360 million people. Yet it is already heavily industrialised.
There are 183 operating oil and gas fields in the region, with dozens more under development and hundreds of exploration blocks under consideration. LNG is an expanding part of that footprint, with 19 terminals currently in operation and at least 27 more planned, many near coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass meadows. If fully built, planned oil and gas projects could extend across up to 16 per cent of the Coral Triangle’s marine area, the coalition estimates.
Frontline communities in biodiversity hotspots such as Palawan and the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, Bali in Indonesia, and Tun Mustapha in Malaysia are already reporting dwindling fish catches as a direct result of the climate crisis that these projects exacerbate, said Anj Dacanay, lead campaigner at Energy Shift Southeast Asia.
“Despite the worsening impacts on coastal communities, the insurance industry continues to back the fossil fuel companies driving this crisis. By shielding these corporations from risk, insurers are actively financing the destruction of vital marine ecosystems and harming frontline communities,” Dacanay said.
Campaigners argue that insurers have already shown they can move faster when they choose to. More than 20 global insurers and reinsurers now have policies that restrict or outright prohibit underwriting oil and gas projects in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where pressure from Indigenous groups and environmental advocates has driven a wave of protective commitments.
“The issue is not a lack of precedent, but a lack of willingness to apply similar protections to the world’s richest marine ecosystem,” Insure Our Future said.
