Climate protest forces evacuation at London market conference

Young activists disrupted the Fitch Ratings Insurance Insights 2026 conference yesterday (22 January 2026), in protest of the London market’s continued support for the fossil fuel industry. 

The demonstration took place during the opening session of the conference in the City’s Minster Building at 2pm.

Three protestors entered the conference venue posing as attendees before two demonstrators invaded the stage, unveiling placards reading ‘No New Workers for Fossil Fuel Insurers’ and calling on the UK insurance sector to stop enabling the expansion of oil, gas and coal.

The activists included a 16 year old who urged companies to stop insuring fossil fuels, as young people will not work for them if they continue to do so. 

After over 10 minutes of the protestors reaching the stage, attendees were evacuated from the conference room. 

Previous action

This follows a series of protests including the recent S&P Ratings conference and a career conference at LLoyd’s of London. 

Campaigners said the acceleration of actions targeting the London insurance market was prompted by recent strategic shifts, the market’s continued exposure to fossil fuels and Lloyd’s of London’s position that it is “apolitical”.

The Fitch Ratings Insurance Insights 2026 conference addressed risk and opportunities for the insurance sector over the next year, with Lloyds of London’s chief of market performance Rachel Turk presenting a session. 

A spokesperson for No New Workers said: ”We disrupted this conference because insurance professionals cannot keep discussing ‘risk’ in isolation from the risks they are actually creating.

”An industry that insures fossil fuel expansion is not managing climate risk – it is fuelling it. Their laissez-faire approach to fossil fuels amounts to a refusal to take responsibility for the damage the market enables. When the world’s largest hub for fossil fuel insurance chooses inaction, it is choosing climate chaos.”