AIG withdraws from climate change lobby group
After receiving growing criticism from Congress for engaging in lobbying activities while essentially being owned by US taxpayers as a result of a federal rescue package last year, AIG formally withdrew its membership in the US Climate Action Partnership last Friday. As noted in prior blog entries, the insurance industry continues to be actively involved in seeking to influence climate change policy and AIG’s public efforts date back to at least 2006. While AIG’s unique financial situation makes its awkward for AIG to be directly lobbying lawmakers on these issues, AIG is still pursuing a fairly public strategy on climate change.
Insurance industry efforts include looking for opportunities to create potentially lucrative new markets for climate change-related risks ranging from traditional weather-related exposures to liability relating to new technologies. At the same time that the insurance industry is looking for sources of new revenue, policyholders can expect the insurance industry to also seek to influence climate change policy in a way that limits the industry’s exposure under historical and current policies potentially implicated by climate change issues.
http://www.globalclimatelaw.com/admin/trackback/112786
