Core business

Customer and Products 

A reduction in CO2 emissions in line with the Paris climate targets can only be achieved as a joint effort. With this in mind, we also want to motivate our corporate customers to work with us on CO2 reduction. In the energy-intensive industrial sector in particular, large amounts of climate-damaging emissions can be saved. In the private customer business, too, UNIQA is focusing decisively on the needs of its customers and anchoring sustainability as a fixed component of its core business. In this way, sustainability aspects can be integrated even more strongly into the consulting approach and into the product development process for all insurance lines.

Decarbonisation as an important principle for UNIQA

As early as 2018, UNIQA was the first Austrian insurance group to initiate a gradual exit from coal-based business and set out a forward-looking strategy with the UNIQA decarbonization guideline. Since 2019, we have refrained from new customer business with companies with a direct or indirect coal share of more than 30 percent. From the beginning of 2023, this coal share will be reduced to 5% for new business. 

In addition, UNIQA will support - under certain conditions - existing customers who want to exit the coal business in transforming their business model until at least 2025. The prerequisite for this is the development and implementation of a credible transformation plan and alignment with defined sustainability criteria.  

At the beginning of 2023, UNIQA will publish the framework conditions for the phase-out of oil and gas, based on the coal phase-out, and implement them in the underwriting guidelines. 

Advice on and prevention of natural disasters

To adequately address climate risks, UCB provides data to the NatCAT Competence Center (NCCC). In this context, the Group's risk exposures and their changes, accumulations and annual expected losses as well as the reinsurance protection required to protect the Group against major natural catastrophes are assessed by NCCC. UCB data are used to validate external models (including NCCC). Their results form the basis of our Group-wide risk management for natural catastrophes. In addition, stress scenarios are calculated annually using these models to test the robustness of our underwriting and reinsurance coverage.