Insurance executives gathering Tuesday for an annual convention at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs had more on their plates than hors d’oeuvres.
Just as Bob Klonk, chair of The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, was announced on stage, a group of three activists ran to the front of the room holding a banner that read, “Methane is Malicious.” On a four count, they chanted, “stop insuring fossil fuels,” to the befuddled audience.
One of the activists then addressed the audience, calling out Liberty Mutual, Chubb, and The Hartford for their insuring of large fossil fuel producers. “Methane gas is not an answer to the climate crisis,” she called to the audience. “It is a climate super polluter.”
An irritated Klonk responded during the disruption trying to reign in the protest. “Not on the program,” Klonk said several times into his microphone as he paced across the stage as seen in footage captured by one of the protestors.
The official website for the Insurance Leadership Forum describes it as “the premier marketplace meeting for top-tier broker executives in the commercial property/casualty industry, as well as carriers and other strategic partners” and reports at least 1,200 attendees each year.
The five-day conference had already encountered protestors on Sunday at a rally outside of the Broadmoor coordinated by climate nonprofits and activist groups 350 Colorado, GreenLatinos, Mothers Out Front Colorado, and Rainforest Action Network. On the event page, protestors listed demands that the large insurance companies “insure our communities instead of oil, gas, and coal.”
Following a host of climate disasters in recent years, some insurers have labeled Colorado homes at high fire risk as too hard to insure. Following the 2021 Marshall fire and the 2020 East Troublesome fire, insurance agency Chubb dropped some policies for Colorado homes. The group of Coloradans protesting the insurance conference argue that insuring fossil fuel producers but not homes impacted by climate change shows a stark lack of moral consciousness.
Protester Giselle Herzfeld elaborated on the demonstration afterwards. “We are facing the biggest fossil fuel buildout of our lifetime with 25 proposed methane gas facilities being built out on the Gulf Coast,” Herzfeld said. “My family, along with tens of thousands of people were put on evacuation notice during the Marshall fire, yet these insurance companies keep underwriting fossil fuel expansion that is fueling the climate crisis.”
Climate activists also cited a recent report on 39 million U.S. homes in jeopardy of losing insurance due to climate risks as well as a document detailing the top insurers of U.S. coal mining.
“If they think they can ignore us and go golfing and rubbing elbows instead of dealing with the climate crisis, they need to think again,” said Ruth Breech, a participant in the protest and member of the Rainforest Action Network.
Chairman Klonk summarized his feelings on the demonstration from on stage as protestors were being escorted out. “We’ve had enough,” he said. “You are disrupting my program and I’ve got a headache.”
