Republican AGs Pen Letter To NZIA Members Over Antitrust Concerns

A group of Republican state attorneys general have written to insurers of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, expressing doubts about the legality of their pledge to work with other insurers and asset owners to promote a climate agenda.

The insurers being targeted are members of both NZIA and NZAOA.

According to AG’s letter, “The push to force insurance companies and their clients to rapidly reduce their emissions has led not only to increased insurance costs, but also to high gas prices and higher costs for products and services across the board, resulting in record-breaking inflation and financial hardships for the residents of our states.”

The letter continues, “In January 2023, the NZIA released its first “Target-Setting Protocol,” which explains your responsibilities as a member.

“While this protocol insists that it is ‘nonbinding’ and that you are ‘free’ to meet the protocol’s requirements ‘independently and unilaterally,’ it goes on to instruct that NZIA members must follow its directions on a ‘comply-or-explain basis.’

“Likewise, the plain language of the document ultimately requires you to take several, concrete and coordinated actions to alter your business.

“Specifically, the NZIA protocol requires you to adopt one of the NZIA’s defined climate targets by this summer and requires you to commit to three of them by next summer.

“These targets are anything but aspirational—they require you to take specific courses of action over the next two decades.”

As an example, the letter suggests that “Meeting NZIA’s ’emissions reduction target’ means choosing either an overarching insurance-associated emissions reduction target of 34-60% by 2030 or targeting emissions on a sector-by-sector basis in line with a net-zero pathway for that sector.”