California Department of Insurance releases results of Fossil Fuel Data Call

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced the results from his Climate Risk Carbon Initiative, which required insurance companies to disclose investments in fossil fuels and requested firms to divest from investments in thermal coal. According to the financial data disclosed, insurers surveyed have US$521 billion in fossil fuel-related securities, which include investments in coal, oil, gas and utilities, US$10.5 billion of which consists of investments in thermal coal enterprises. Since the announcement of Commissioner Jones’ Initiative, insurers have already divested more than US$4 billion in thermal coal and other fossil fuel investments, and have committed to disposing of an additional $881million of coal investments.