Nippon Life Insurance to end coal power investment

Japanese Life Insurance Company Nippon Life Insurance Co has announced it will stop lending and investment activity in coal-fired power plants.

The decision is based on ‘environmental concerns’ according to Business Green and as such Nippon has become the first major Japanese investment company to divest from coal in this way.

According to Reuters, Yusuke Takaishi, deputy manager for finance and investment planning at Nippon, said: “We have decided to stop investment and lending to coal-fired power projects at home and overseas.

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“There are discussions among institutional investors, mainly those in Europe and the US, on how to deal with the issue of climate change and we are part of those discussions. Our decision on coal power is just one result of our ongoing discussions on climate change and we are not just considering coal,” he added.

Business Green has reported that up to 50 Japanese corporates will join the R100 initiative, which outlines the aim to use solely renewable energy by 2050.

Nippon Life Insurance company is the largest Japanese life insurance company in terms of revenue. Headquartered in Osaka, the company was founded in 1889 and currently has around 70,000 employees.