Intact Financial reveals net zero sustainability plan

Intact Financial Corporation has revealed its five-part climate transition plan for its Canadian, US, and European (which includes RSA Group) businesses.

The company’s five-part transition plan includes:

A commitment to achieve net zero emissions by the year 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement, with an interim goal to halve emissions by 2030 using 2019 as a baseline;
“Doubling down” on providing help to people in adapting to the impacts of extreme weather in Canada, the US, and the UK;
Influencing “climate-friendly” behavior among customers by incentivizing green behavior, creating and scaling green products, and providing information and education;
Enabling the transformation of businesses and industries key to the transition and supporting new industries that will be created to build a sustainable future; and
Collaborating with governments and industry to accelerate climate action.

To drive the second part of the plan, Intact Financial announced it has formed a new partnership with The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). The insurer will invest some $8 million in the five-year partnership to help conserve and restore Canada’s threatened wetlands, as well as develop a made-in-Canada protocol for wetland-based carbon offsets and then translating said protocol into a sustainable finance tool.

“We’ve been on the frontlines of climate change with our customers for more than a decade, helping them recover from the devastating impacts of extreme weather,” said Intact Financial CEO Charles Brindamour. “As we expand our scope more broadly toward climate transition, we will build off Intact’s leadership in adaptation and RSA’s established carbon reduction targets. We are committed to taking an inclusionary approach to supporting our partners and customers, and we will leverage our strengths to help de-risk the transition towards a sustainable future.”

Last month, Intact joined Canada’s other major insurance companies – which include the likes of Aviva, CNA, Gallagher, Hub International, Travelers, Wawanesa, and Zurich – in forming the climate resilience initiative The Nature Force. The initiative, in collaboration with environmental non-profit Ducks Unlimited Canada, will focus its efforts into advocating for the development of wetland systems for both flood mitigation and biodiversity.