UK students pledge job boycott of insurers over fossil fuels: Report

Hundreds of students and graduates of top universities in the United Kingdom (UK) have pledged a "career boycott" of major insurers stating that they will not work for companies that support controversial fossil fuel projects, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

In a letter, the students wrote, "We refuse to put our professional careers at the service of climate wreckers that insure those responsible for the climate crisis."

The letter has been sent to several companies including Lloyd's, Beazley, and Hiscox, among others. The students come from a wide range of universities including the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

In its recent 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, Deloitte said that over half of Gen Z recruits researched a company's environmental policies and impacts before accepting the offer letter. One in every four people surveyed said that they will change roles because of their employer's climate impact.

In the letter, the students said they will pay special focus on insurers that decide to work with TotalEnergies and Equinor, which they said were seeking insurance for East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

They added that nearly two dozen insurers have already ruled out supporting the pipeline.  

"Since 2017, at least 41 insurers have adopted restrictions on underwriting coal, 22 on tar sands and 13 on conventional oil and gas. But Lloyd’s of London and many Lloyd's managing agents are lagging behind and putting our lives at risk by continuing to insure oil and gas," the report quoted the letter as saying.

"Therefore, if they hope to recruit us, they must refuse to insure EACOP, Rosebank, and any new fossil fuel projects, and we will not offer them our labour force until they do," Sacha Ruello, a 21-year-old student of the University College London told The Guardian.