What is Insure Our Survival?

Insure Our Survival is a national campaign to demand the insurance industry pull the plug on the fossil fuel criminals who are drilling and pumping the oil and gas products that will fry our futures - if we let them.

In ~~April~~February 2024, thousands of us took to the streets in the City of London and towns and cities across the country in an Insurance Week of direct action, Insure Our Future. This climaxed with giant global insurer Zurich bowing to our sustained pressure and announcing they are pulling out of insuring all new oil and gas projects.

We are building on that major win with a sustained and escalating campaign, Insure Our Survival. and we welcome everyone and every part of everyone - whether new to activism, returning or taking action with another aligned group.

Focusing our rebel creativity and courage, and working alongside an alliance of other seasoned campaigners and movements, we are targeting general insurers, brokers. reinsurers and underwriters with high, medium and low-risk actions and powerful storytelling around a single demand: stop insuring all new oil, gas, and coal projects and infrastructure.

But we won’t stop there. Our ultimate aim is to force all insurers, reinsurers and underwriters to quit the fossil fuel industry completely and for good.

Insurance action works. Insurance is Winnable

We showed in early 2024 that direct action by XR against Insurers can not only get them out of specific Fossil Fuel expansion projects, such as Cambo, EACOP, Rosebank and West Cumbria Coal mine, but also move them to rule out insuring Fossil Fuel expansion going forwards as Zurich did globally following direct action by XRUK this Spring.

After a one-rebel occupation of their lobby in London, Zurich Global’s CEO actually emailed XR’s actions team. Which was a first!! One month later they announced they are getting out of insuring any new Fossil Fuel projects.

As such, Insure our Survival’s strategy is at the ambitious end: to get more and more insurers out of covering (aka “underwriting”) Fossil Fuel expansion or ‘carbon bomb’ projects. Forever.

Our Objective

Using this strategy, we have one overriding and clear objective:
That sustained direct action from XR & friends will get companies to stop insuring new or expanding oil, gas & coal projects.

And our goal for this next phase is that this happens for at least:

1 x ReInsurer
3 x Underwriters
1 x Broker
1 x General Insurer

Keeping it In the Ground

Insurance is the Achilles’ Heel of Fossil Extraction. Without insurance they can’t drill, mine, transport or refine.

Even better burning Fossil Fuels & overheating planet Earth is now increasing the risks of Insurance firms going bankrupt, and they know this better than anyone. Many are ready to move out of Fossil Fuels , they just need a good push.

What XR brings to the party is of course direct action, combining lobby occupations and mass participation action in February 2024 with 'Insure our Future'. These proven tactics led to successful actions in London and around the UK.
So let’s bring it!