A group of global insurers that have pledged to reduce carbon emissions in their underwriting portfolios wants brokers and industry trade bodies to join the cause.

The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, convened by the United Nations Environment Programme and chaired by Axa SA, was formed in July with eight founding insurers and reinsurers. Five more companies, as well as insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London, have since added their names to the roll.

The alliance will be working to get brokers on board "in the coming months," Butch Bacani, program leader for the UN Environment Programme's Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative, said at an event that coincided with Finance Day at the global COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The alliance wants supporting institutions such as insurance associations to join too, and it is seeking to expand its membership of insurers and reinsurers globally.

Engagement with governments is also viewed as key. While the alliance is a "super-powerful tool," it also needs "a broader and consistent alignment with all the stakeholders," including policymakers and regulators, said Renaud Guidée, the alliance's chair and Axa's group chief risk officer.

A major focus of discussion with lawmakers is coming to an agreement on consistent carbon emission disclosure metrics globally, Guidée said.

"We all need to shoot in the same direction to achieve what should be a common goal," he added.

The alliance is working with the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials on a global standard for measuring and disclosing insured greenhouse gas emissions, which Bacani said should be completed by the summer of 2022. The group is also planning to launch its target-setting protocol for members in January 2023; members will have to submit their first interim targets under the alliance within six months of its release.

Insurance underwriters are coming under increasing pressure to stop insuring fossil fuel production. Guidée said the alliance's founding members individually had taken "some very resolute actions" to exclude some of the most polluting and carbon-intensive industries, which is "very important in terms of signaling [and] in terms of impact as well for lost causes."

Guidée also said that the insurance industry's role in cutting carbon emissions is "not about being an exclusion machine" and that it is very important that insurers "roll up our sleeves" to help the rest of the economy make processes cleaner and less carbon intensive.