Washington has called on China to provide a level playing field for American businesses as Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a visit aimed at resolving a raft of contentious issues that could jeopardise the newly repaired relationship.
Blinken’s trip is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year.
But Washington and Beijing have been increasingly at odds over how American companies operate in China, Chinese exports and manufacturing, and strains are also growing over Beijing’s backing of Russia in its war in Ukraine.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that at a meeting with China’s top official in Shanghai, Chen Jining, Blinken raised concerns about China’s “trade policies and non-market economic practices.”
Blinken also “stressed that the USA seeks a healthy economic competition with the PRC and a level playing field for USA workers and firms operating in China.”
China has dismissed as groundless criticism that its manufacturing capacity is excessive, adding that its industries, ranging from electric vehicles to solar panels, are competitive and innovative.
Section: News
Sector: Banking & Finance
Author: Staff Reporter
Country: USA
Image: pollution
Headline: Global Insurers’ Climate Grouping relaunched
Blurb: Forum for Insurance Transition to Net Zero a completely new initiative, says the UN environment body
A global insurance coalition intended to help curb the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions has relaunched with a new name and weaker membership requirements in response to companies fleeing over allegations of collusion by Republican politicians in the United States of America.
The insurance group, called the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), will be disbanded and replaced by the Forum for Insurance Transition to Net Zero (FIT), the United Nations Environment Programme, which convened the NZIA, said recently.
The move is the latest example of Republican-led attacks on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives, diluting efforts to tackle climate change. Among several climate coalitions of financial firms, the NZIA has been the most vulnerable. This is because rather than being federally regulated in the USA, insurers are overseen at the state level, where Republican officials hostile to the transition away from fossil fuels have more sway.
The Forum for Insurance Transition to Net Zero is a new initiative altogether, said Butch Bacani, the head of the insurance team at UNEP. “It’s not simply a Version 2.0. It’s really a clean cut and a new structure.”
Members will not need to set targets to reduce their emissions and report on them annually, as was the case with NZIA. Instead, they will be expected to adopt four ‘Principles for Sustainable Insurance’, which focus on processes.
These relate to creating frameworks to measure emissions and setting targets for the members that want to do so; developing energy transition plans; engaging with companies in different sectors; and tackling barriers to developing climate solutions.
The reboot comes after NZIA lost more than half its members, including AXA, Lloyd’s of London and Tokio Marine, after attorneys general from 23 Republican-run USA states sent a letter in May 2023 seeking information about insurers’ membership and threatening legal action.
In response, the NZIA eased its membership rules last year, including removing a six-month deadline for members to publish greenhouse gas emissions targets. But some insurers still found membership prescriptive.
The FIT is launching with 46 organisations including British insurer Aviva, Italy’s Generali, Singapore Life and Canadian company Co-operators. It will also have two separate, independent consultative groups to inform its work —one for regulators and supervisors and the other for academic institutions and civil society organisations. The new structure will also be backed up by a legal team including experts on antitrust law from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Norton Rose Fulbright.
