12 December 2017 (MONTREAL) — French financial services giant, AXA (the third-largest insurer in the world) announced today it divested over three billion Euros from coal and tar sands, including from tar sands pipelines and companies like TransCanada, Enbridge and Kinder Morgan. [1]
In response, Patrick Bonin, Climate and Energy Campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said:
“AXA has set a new global standard, raising the bar for other actors in the financial sector who say they are committed to respecting the Paris Accord and human rights. The decision by AXA is proof that the domino effect of divestment from tar sands and pipelines has gained critical momentum.
“AXA is now the eighth big financial institution to distance themselves from the tar sands. [2] Meanwhile, the decision to exit from upstream oil and gas by the World Bank — one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions — has sent a damning vote of non-confidence rippling through the finance community. [3]
“This is new proof that the oil industry’s days are numbered. Interest in the most polluting oil in the world and the pipelines that carry it is drying up before our very eyes. These projects have no future in a low-carbon world in which the rights of First Nations are respected. This is a victory for concerned citizens, environmental groups and Indigenous communities, whose resistance is now bearing fruit as greater numbers of financial institutions are abandoning these projects, which are high-risk for their reputation and finances.”
“AXA’s announcement is a reminder that TD Bank and cooperative financial group Desjardins, must both reconsider their lending and investment portfolios. Desjardins should immediately reverse its recent decision to lift its moratorium on tar sands pipeline funding and should end its $145 million loan to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion project. TD Bank, meanwhile, must finally answer the public's questions about its deep involvement in financing Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline.”
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Contact:
Jesse Firempong, Communications Officer, 
, 778-996-6549.
[1] AXA’s announcement includes more than 3 billion in divestment from carbon-intensive coal and tar sands energy producers as well as a quadrupling of its green investments to 12 billion Euros in 2020. The group will no longer insure any projects to build new coal-fired plans or tar sands extraction projects and related pipelines.
[2] AXA’s announcement comes on the heels of moves by other French financial giants, Société Générale and Natixis, on Friday and yesterday, respectively, and Crédit Agricole last week, all of whom pledged to stop funding tar sands projects. Last month, French banking giant BNP Paribas also cut ties with tar sands companies. Before that, similar decisions to not fund tar sands pipelines were taken by U.S. Bank, Dutch bank ING, and AP7 Sweden’s largest pension fund.
[3] Last month, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund made a historic announcement that it was mulling a future free of oil and gas, while earlier today, the World Bank announced a general policy to no longer fund upstream oil and gas activities (exploration and extraction) by 2019 alongside other measures to finance climate action and work towards decarbonization.