By Louis Goss
Insurance sector lobby group Insurance Europe has called on the EU to prioritize setting climate standards over social ones, in putting forward its ESG taxonomy.
In a response to an EU consultation, Insurance Europe called on the bloc to hold back from setting “overly prescriptive” ESG standards, particularly in regards to human rights, as it called for climate standards to be prioritized.
Insurance Europe is one Europe’s largest insurance sector trade bodies, whose members include Lloyd’s of London and the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
Philippe Angelis, senior policy advisor at Insurance Europe, said that while the trade body supports implementing standards covering “all aspects of sustainability,” it believes climate standards should be prioritized.
“We believe that generally priority should be given to climate as it is more mature, established and also very urgent,” Angelis said. “Climate disclosures are more mature than social disclosure at this stage.”
Insurance Europe called on the EU’s Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF) to use existing human rights laws in setting out its social standards, instead of introducing new ones.
The lobby group said the EU’s taxonomy should align with its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
It said compliance with the CSDDD human rights standards should ensure compliance with the EU’s planned minimum safeguards (MS).
Insurance Europe warned that “current data availability and reliability” is not sufficient, as it warned new human rights rules could “lead to unintended bias” against non-EU companies.
The trade body warned that setting overly prescriptive standards could impose “significant burden on companies and create undue complexity”.
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