The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Despite the energy crisis, insurers are unlikely to invest in nuclear power

2022-08-02T06:35:33.813Z


According to an EU classification, natural gas and nuclear energy plants will be sustainable in the future. Nevertheless, actuary Schneidemann does not expect a boom in nuclear investments in this country.


Enlarge image

Nuclear power plant Isar 2: Will it continue to produce electricity after 2022 – which would then even be considered green?

Photo:

Wolfgang Maria Weber / IMAGO

With the taxonomy, the EU Commission in Brussels has launched a kind of catalog for climate-friendly investments.

From January 2023 onwards, investing money in certain gas and nuclear power plants will also be considered climate-friendly.

According to an industry expert, insurers in Germany will nevertheless exercise caution when investing in nuclear power.

"I believe that insurers will generally rule this out because of the critical attitude of many people to nuclear power in Germany," said the chairman of the German Association of Actuaries, Herbert Schneidemann, the dpa news agency.

"Personally, I believe that hardly any company can afford to call nuclear power in Germany green and then refer to the EU taxonomy."

Actuaries are actuaries who use methods of probability theory and statistics to assess financial uncertainties in insurance companies.

The classification of gas and nuclear energy as sustainable had caused widespread criticism.

After the vote, Greenpeace announced that it would take legal action against the commission.

The organization Finanzwende called the decision a “disaster for sustainable financial markets”.

Air conditioning good, but at the expense of the future

"Nuclear power would be a good technology in terms of climate technology, but it is something that is at the expense of the future," said actuary Schneidemann.

He is CEO of the insurance group Die Bayerische.

In principle, Schneidemann sees good opportunities for the industry to contribute to climate protection.

Insurers could leverage investments to get companies moving and greener.

In addition to investments in wind turbines, for example, the industry can achieve at least as much if it helps to »make brown industries a little greener.

It doesn't help if you tell the brown industry: You won't get any more money from us.«

He therefore considers a gradual transformation of insurers' capital investments to be important.

According to the latest data from the insurance association GDV, the investment portfolio in the industry amounted to almost 1.8 trillion euros at the end of 2020.

apr/dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-08-02

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.