Students protest at insurance broker Howden

At 8 am on the 29th of January, students from several London universities peacefully entered and occupied the lobby of One Creechurch Street, office of insurance broker Howden, on the day of the Risk Forum and Exhibition hosted and sponsored by the broker. 

Activists remained in the company lobby for over an hour with a banner stating "No new workers for fossil fuel insurers", targeting both Howden and insurance-industry attendees in protest of the brokering and insuring of fossil fuels and the arms industry. 

Amongst the youth protesters were students from University College London, Lancaster University, Kings College London, and London School of Economics. One student from Imperial was involved in organising the protest. They spoke to Felix on balancing research and activism: "Doing research in a social justice related field such as climate change is a double-edged sword. As much as it's empowering to work on these scientific questions, it leads to a 'double reality,' where you effectively become an expert in a field without experiencing the reality of the problem. Very little research will actually lead to direct impact, and universities don't encourage and support direct activism as a complement of the research being done in their institutions. Hence, people who want to enact change while meeting academic performance criteria must do activism on their own time. This tradeoff increases the risk of burnout and makes research isolated."

The protestors claim that insurers have a responsibility for driving man-made climate change through their insuring of major fossil fuel projects. They also note that Howden places around $700 million in premiums for the energy and marine sector, which includes brokering insurance for fossil fuel projects.

The action was taken by members from the Educate Climate Coalition, Insure Tomorrow, and Insure our Survival. Shana Sullivan, PhD student and spokesperson for the Education Climate Coalition said: "The insurance industry is incredibly complicit in the state of the world now and the future to come through their insuring fossil fuel projects and support of violent industries - and if they continue then young people like us will refuse to work for them."

This protest comes at a time when hugely destructive fires have ravaged Los Angeles. The fires hit amid a home insurance crisis, where homes are being denied coverage or charged rapidly rising rates due to increased wildfire risks. Many of the neighbourhoods destroyed in this month's wildfires had their insurance coverage withdrawn by State Farm, the largest home insurer in California, earlier last year. This is just one of several insurance companies who are withdrawing coverage from areas at increased risk of extreme weather due to climate change. As homes become uninsurable and the government is used as an insurer of last resort in more cases, this risk is put onto them, which could lead to further crises. Not even aquaman will buy a house that's on fire.

Howden did not respond to a request for comment.