Dave Jones says he was first insurance regulator ‘in the world’ to call for fossil divestment. True?
California State Senate District 8 candidate Dave Jones is no stranger to making eyebrow-raising claims.
In a Sacramento Bee voter guide questionnaire, Jones, a former California Insurance Commissioner, said, “I was the first financial regulator in the world to ask an entire industry to divest from fossil fuel.”
Jones, a Democrat, is running a heated race against Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby, also a Democrat.
Jones’ statement refers to a Jan. 26, 2016 announcement asking all insurance companies doing business in California to voluntarily divest from investments in thermal coal.
“Complying with this request includes making no new investments, not renewing any existing investments, and selling or withdrawing from existing investments in companies that generate 30% or more of their revenues from the mining or use of thermal coal,” Jones said.
He also ordered insurance companies to provide “detailed and specific financial disclosures of their investments in the carbon economy, including oil, gas and coal.”
“I’m pleased to be the first insurance regulator in the nation to call on insurance companies to divest from thermal coal, and also the first to require insurance companies to provide detailed public disclosures of their investments in the carbon economy,” Jones said.
But was he the first?
It’s unclear.
Melanie Clowes, spokeswoman for the International Association of Insurance Supervisors in Basel, Switzerland, said that she was unable to find anyone at that organization who could substantiate that claim.
“We are a small team that work on short-term contracts so the team is very different from what it was in 2016,” Clowes said.
Michael Soneff, speaking for the Jones campaign, pointed to the fact that Jones chaired the international Sustainable Insurance Forum when it formed in December 2016, a global network of insurance supervisors and regulators focused on sustainability challenges in the insurance sector.
“Under his leadership the SIF prepared reports on what other national insurance regulators were doing to address climate risks. Based on these reports, his leadership of the SIF, and his expert knowledge of the emerging insurance regulatory practice with regard to climate risk (which he has been an international leader in driving), Dave knows that he was the first insurance regulator to ask for divestment, in 2016,” Soneff told The Bee.
Despite Jones’ request for divestment, insurance companies that do business in California continue to invest in fossil fuels, including thermal coal, according to a 2018-19 climate risk analysis published by the California Insurance Commissioner’s Office earlier this year.