AXA increases its commitment to sustainable investments

AXA is continuing along its steady course towards climate-friendly investments, and in 2021 it became a partner of the new Impact Finance forum which promotes Switzerland as a sustainable financial center. 

Climate change is our century's biggest challenges. As one of the largest insurance companies and asset managers worldwide, AXA continues to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change by continually reducing its own CO2 footprint, but also by focusing clearly on sustainability in its investments. AXA also intends to win over as many people and companies as possible for joint climate change efforts through a series of partnerships. 

The AXA Group has been driving forward this issue robustly for years, also defining climate change as a strategic focus for the coming years in its new Driving Progress 2023 strategywhich it announced in December 2020. 

As early as 2015, AXA was the first major insurance company to announce a gradual exit from the coal industry, in terms of both investments and insurance cover. AXA will now further its efforts to promote steering a course towards a low-carbon future, as carbon still accounts for more than 40 percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide. 

Ambitious climate targets for sustainable investments 

Daniel Gussmann, Chief Investments Officer of AXA Switzerland: "We aim to completely eradicate coal from the global energy mix." Today, AXA is no longer investing in companies that generate more than 30 percent of their sales through coal mining or coal power. We aim to exit from coal completely by 2030 in OECD and EU countries and worldwide by 2040, i.e. no more investments in coal companies or insurance cover for them either." 

In line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, AXA has also set itself the target of limiting the global warming potential of its own investments to less than 1.5°C by 2050. It already managed to reduce the CO2 footprint of its investments by 31 percent between 2014 and 2019. Now it has set itself another interim target of reducing the CO2 footprint of its investments by an additional 20 percent by 2025. 

As a member of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, Climate Action 100+ and many other initiatives and partnerships, AXA also supports concerted action by key investors in favor of climate protection. 

Daniel Gussmann: "We will only achieve positive changes if as many companies as possible commit to sustainability. We would therefore like to encourage and support other companies on the path towards a more sustainable future."

AXA has become a partner of the new Impact Finance Forum 

AXA has been a supportive partner of the new Impact Finance Forum set up by NZZ Connect since 2021. The forum positions itself as a leading national conference in the financial sector to focus more on the relevance of sustainable investments and contribute towards Switzerland as a stable and sustainable financial center. 

Daniel Gussmann: "As a partner of the Impact Finance Forum, we are aiming to promote a dialogue and exchange of views between the various players from the world of politics, the economy and science so that the issue of sustainability can be more firmly embedded throughout the whole of the Swiss financial center."

The Impact100-Forum kicks off the new initiative on July 7, 2021 which will involve 100 selected participants. The specialist Impact Finance Conference with around 350 participants will take place on September 28, 2021 in Bern. AXA will also be organizing its own Impact Finance Lab which is likely to be held in the fall.

Other partners of the Impact Finance Forum are UBS and Thomas Lloyd. The initiative is also being supported by the IMD Business School, consultants PwC, supplier of global climate services South Pole, the Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab of the University of Zurich, the Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF) association, the communications agency furrerhugi and the umbrella organization Swiss Banking / Swiss Bankers Association.