AXA

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the compensation and governance committee of the board reviews the sustainability strategy. In addition to publicly committing to gender equality as a signatory of Women’s Empowerment Principles, AXA has a gender-balanced board of directors where nine out of 17 members are women. Furthermore, it has a responsible investment strategy where it describes its approach to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement across its portfolio. Furthermore, it discloses case studies of successful engagement across its stewardship report. Moreover, AXA discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organizations, as well as its position on sustainability themes in its Public Affair Charter 2021.

As a member of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance and Climate Action 100+, AXA discloses respectively a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050 and its collective engagement with its investees on the topic of climate change. It also publishes the financed emissions of its general accounts portfolio. On climate solutions, it discloses the aggregate amount of its green investments and a related investment target of €24bn by 2023. Moreover, AXA discloses its exposure to biodiversity risk in its financing activities as well as its commitments to minimise related impacts. Further, it discloses financing criteria in relation to deforestation and palm oil for its financing activities and requires an action plan to reach zero deforestation by 2025 as part of its engagement. Axa has a natural capital target dedicated to supporting forestry management projects and nature-based solutions.

AXA has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights, the ILO core labour rights, the health and safety of workers, to protect personal data, and to prohibit bribery and corruption. Further, it describes its human rights due diligence process for its operations and financing activities, including a list of its main human rights and the processes to prevent, mitigate or remediate those human rights risks. On diversity and inclusion, AXA discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Moreover, the insurance undertakes a compliance risk assessment exercise to identify bribery and corruption risks in its operations. In addition, AXA discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement and publishes its expenditures on lobbying activities.

AXA has an opportunity to improve its performance by linking the compensation of its executive and management teams to quantitative targets about sustainability. Furthermore, it also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and to disclose how it addresses any gender pay gaps to reach its target of full pay equity by 2023. Although AXA has an ESG engagement framework for its investments that includes escalation points in case of non-compliance, there is no evidence that these apply also to its insurance activities. Additionally, it could provide evidence detailing how the ESG engagement is applied in practice.

AXA discloses interim emissions targets on carbon footprint reduction but has an opportunity to set absolute interim targets. It also has an opportunity to specify that it engages with companies on the topic of 1.5°C alignment, rather than climate change generally, and to require them to have a related aligned strategy in place. Furthermore, AXA can disclose some progress against the 2023 investment target for its green investments. Moreover, it discloses an exclusion list for certain fossil fuels as well as a strategy to phase out coal from its insurance and investment activities. However, AXA has an opportunity to disclose its approach to fossil fuels that spans across the whole fossil fuels value chain and all its financing activities, including the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels.

AXA discloses the ages of its board of directors and the average age of the salaried workforce but has an opportunity to disclose this information for each employee category. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, could publish the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or low-income developing countries.