Cambridge Students’ Union (SU) has backed a campaign to “challenge the insurance industry’s support of fossil fuels,” joining representatives of more than fifty UK higher education institutions to call on firms to stop insuring fossil fuel companies.

The campaign, Insure Tomorrow, is supported by the National Union of Students (NUS), and was recently launched at the NUS’ Ethical Financing conference, attended by Cambridge SU’s welfare officer, Elleni Eshete.

The project, which claims to represent over one million UK students, is calling on the insurance industry to stop providing services to fossil fuel companies. Insure Tomorrow also demands that Students’ Unions pass motions condemning the insurance industry for its “climate failures.”

The campaign also aims to pressure universities to swap insurance providers and stop promoting careers in insurance companies that work with fossil fuel companies. The industry earns over $21bn per year in premiums from insuring fossil fuels, they claim.

The group aims to use workforce leverage to push the industry to ditch fossil fuels: “Currently, the insurance sector is facing a significant recruitment crisis, and we plan to leverage this situation to compel these companies to act,” they said.

A spokesperson for the campaign told Varsity that insurance companies are “aggressively recruiting” from top universities such as Cambridge.

“We’re keen to see how students in Cambridge, and in the wider Russell Group, will react to awareness-raising efforts on the link between the insurance industry and fossil fuel exploitation,” they said.

Elleni Eshete, speaking on Instagram on behalf of Insure Tomorrow, said: “This generation of students really care about people and the planet, and that’s worth investing in.”

Eshete told Varsity: “This initiative is a brilliant opportunity to help make sure that we as Sabbs are well equipped to go into important conversations in committees such as the Banking Engagement Forum, amongst others, with the right tools.”

“In these meetings, we encourage the University to uphold its sustainability goals and encourage them to reconsider their working involvement with harmful and unsustainable institutions (particularly, in this case, those who insure new fossil fuel investments). We strongly believe in ethical and sustainable financial practices which ensure that there will be a habitable and safe planet for future generations,” she said.

The campaign focuses on Lloyd’s of London, an insurance marketplace which insures 9% of the fossil fuel industry, according to Insure Our Future, an international campaign. The company has worked in partnership with Cambridge, having published research in collaboration with the University’s Centre for Risk Studies earlier this month.

Amira Campbell, NUS president and an Insure Tomorrow representative, said: “We believe that young people deserve a liveable future. Every industry has a duty — not only to the youth of today but to future generations who are yet to come.”

“What this campaign does is take an issue that is ordinarily perceived to be complex and makes it accessible for students to mobilise around. We now know who is responsible for climate chaos and we are not afraid to stand up against those who stand in the way,” she said.

Last year, Cambridge students joined Oxford and UCL in launching a “career boycott” of Barclays, refusing to work at the bank until it stops financing fossil fuels. Cambridge University is currently considering ending its centuries-long partnership with Barclays, reportedly preferring banks which “do not finance fossil fuel expansion”.

The University of Cambridge was contacted for comment.