AXA has announced a new phase in its climate strategy, which aims to accelerate its contribution to the transition towards a more sustainable and less carbon-intensive economy by 2050, in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The new phase will have a particular focus on sustainable finance, with the company noting that “AXA will use all its levers as a global investor, insurer and cooperation enabler”.

AXA targets will now contain the ‘warming potential’ of its investments to below 1.5°C by 2050. As part of this objective, the Group will double its green investment objective to €24bn by 2023. AXA will also invest in transition bonds, an asset class conceptualised by AXA Investment Managers to support companies shifting towards less carbon-intensive business models.

AXA will also be driving its divestment policy to completely exit the coal industry by 2030 in the OECD and EU countries, then in the rest of the world by 2040. In the shorter term, existing investment thresholds will be strengthened, with a particularly stringent focus on companies developing new coal capacities. AS an insurer, AXA will strengthen its coal underwriting policy and ban any insurance business with clients developing new coal projects that exceed 300MW in capacity, as well as further restrict underwriting services with coal-related businesses.

AXA has recently joined the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a coalition of institutional investors committed to transitioning their investments to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.


AXA climate strategy here.

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