Australian insurer Suncorp has decided to stop insuring and financing the oil and gas industry by 2025.

The move is said to follow the group’s announcement last year to stop supporting new thermal coal projects.

The insurer has already halted insuring, underwriting or even directly investing in new oil and gas projects in order to fully quit in the next five years.

Suncorp expects to end all direct investments in the oil and gas sector by 2040 as part of its efforts for a ‘net-zero emissions economy’.

However, the company’s move is considered to be at variance with the recent guidance issued by the Covid advisory commission of the Australian government, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The commission recommended a focus on gas to accelerate the economic recovery, reported The Guardian.

In June, Suncorp reported that fossil fuel extraction and generation constituted less than 0.1% of its general insurance business. The company reported then to have made $236m investments in low carbon industries.

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The company, in its recently-released Responsible Business report, also stated that it will continue to underwrite, lend to and invest in firms that are clearly in line with shifting to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

In 2019, TAL Dai-ichi Life Australia signed a non-binding heads of agreement to acquire Suncorp’s Australian life insurance arm in a deal worth around $537.8m.