Insure Our Survival - London

I was really inspired by the XR Insure our Survival 3 days of action in London. Big insurance companies had all received letters from XR 2 weeks ago encouraging them to commit to stop insuring new fossil fuel projects, as Zurich Insurers have done. If XR did not receive any such assurance, XR promised, or was it threatened, to sully their name. And lo! I arrived at Tower Hill and there was a mammoth screen with powerful images of floods, famine, forest fires and the names of those Insurance companies with pictures and names of their CEOs!

A lively march with banners and samba band paraded through the city and stopped outside the big insurers. I learnt a lot! We stopped in a square, completely glass-roofed with two sky scrapers at right angles. In discreet letters on both were the letters, Marsh McLennan. I learnt they are a US based mega financial services company - last year’s revenue was $22.74 billion. We held a banner outside, “STOP insuring EACOP”.

We heard from Ugandan activists about this East African Crude Oil Pipeline, currently under construction. It will be the largest in the world with major displacement of people and potential severe impact on biodiversity and water. Uganda is currently suffering from severe drought so this project to put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is murderous. The EU and environmental organisations are taking legal action to halt the project. It was inspiring to hear them and to bring the collusion of mega MarshMcLennan into the open.