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Munich Re no longer interested in ESG and climate protection

The reinsurance company Munich Re $MUV2 (+1,81 %) is withdrawing from several international climate initiatives at the same time, following the example of $BLK (+1,23 %) which also announced a comprehensive withdrawal from climate policy just last week.

While the company used to be one of the loudest advocates of climate policy and net zero targets, it is now justifying its withdrawal with increasing legal uncertainty and and inconsistent regulatory requirements in various countries. CEO Joachim Wenning also criticizes the fact that many climate reporting obligations have hardly contributed to reducing emissions. However, he affirms that Munich Re will continue to work behind the scenes to protect the climate.

Cynical observers, however, see the sudden change of course as a tactic. In recent years, Munich Re had significantly increased its risk premiums with reference to the potential threat posed by climate change, which also sustainably improved the company's earnings situation. Now that political support for ESG projects in particular is dwindling, the company no longer wants to be publicly associated with the controversial content of ESG initiatives or continue to take responsibility for them.

My opinion: In my view, Munich Re is demonstrating a very skillful and pragmatic approach to lobbying. Instead of bluntly clinging to idealism and decisions from the past, the Board of Management reacts appropriately to the situation and tries to create added value for investors within the framework of the shareholder approach. This increases my trust in the Board of Management and has prompted me to start a savings plan on Munich Re in my secondary portfolio.

3 Commentaires

Georg E.@Georgeous

Very good 👍 finally an end to ideological self-cultivation that brings nothing

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ThemenmitKopf@topicswithhead

I think ESG is important, but it needs to be more uniform and, above all, ideology-free. The problem now is that the left, the Greens and others have pushed it forward or rather pushed it on people in such a way that the other side just wants to see it fail. Completely counterproductive on both sides.

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Soprano@Soprano

@topicswithhead I can still halfway subscribe to governance, there are some good approaches. However, a large part of the guidelines here also only consist of the fact that the Executive Board should not do anything criminal.

But when it comes to social issues, common sense slowly comes to an end, as most things are already regulated by law anyway. The fact that I have to give my employees work clothes and must not treat anyone unfairly is a legally binding regulation anyway. Almost the only thing that can be done voluntarily in this area is to pursue a racist personnel policy in order to give people jobs that they would not have been given on the basis of their qualifications and performance.

And when it comes to the climate, most people completely lose their minds. Because their entire concept of climate protection consists solely of taking money away from group A in order to give it to group B. In other words: redistribution. In other words: redistribution. With the exception of Krombacher, there are really only a few companies whose climate protection concept consists largely of reforesting rainforests in Cameroon - in other words, in real, observable and measurable actions in the real world. Blackrock and Munich Re have certainly not saved any lizards in Guatemala.

Instead, what has happened in the companies is that they first made the products they sell more expensive and worse "because of the climate and all that" and then passed on some of the money to various governmental and semi-governmental organizations. Do you actually know what "green electricity" is? If you buy green electricity, it simply means that a certificate is issued in Iceland that your electricity is now green instead of brown. That's it. Read up on emissions trading if you want to completely lose faith in humanity.

Conclusion: ESG actually consists of 90% compliance with rules that have been in force in Western countries for decades and are mandatory anyway, and 10% absolute and malicious madness

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