Climate activists erected a two-story mock oil derrick outside Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg’s New York City home on Thursday to draw attention to the insurer’s climate and human rights record. The derrick read “Oil Drilling Insured by Chubb,” referring to Chubb’s position as a top fossil fuel insurer and the numerous oil and gas expansion projects that the company is supporting around the world.
“Chubb, as one of the world’s largest oil and gas insurers, has its fingers in destructive oil and gas projects from the Arctic to Brazil,” said Hannah Saggau, Public Citizen’s insurance campaigner. “Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg claims to be a steward of the Earth, but that is simply greenwashing if he continues to direct his company to support the expansion of coal, oil, and gas infrastructure that pollutes communities, violates Indigenous rights, and locks in decades of carbon emissions that our climate cannot afford.”
Following the construction of the oil derrick prop, activists delivered a petition signed by over 50,000 people urging CEO Greenberg to stop insuring oil and gas expansion and to respect human rights. More than a dozen people gathered outside the iconic Dakota Apartments building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to support the petition’s demands, with youth climate leaders and fossil fuel campaigners explaining why they were there. Activists also distributed flyers to bystanders and CEO Greenberg’s neighbors.
Rainforest Action Network, Public Citizen, No North Brooklyn Pipeline, 350NYC, NY Communities for Change, Rise and Resist NYC, Catskill Mountainkeepers, and other organizations organized the protest in response to a damning new report. According to Insure Our Future’s sixth annual Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels, and the Climate Emergency, which was released last week, Chubb’s fossil fuel policies received 0.5 out of 10 points, placing it near the bottom of the 30 companies evaluated.