Climate activists have continued their efforts to disrupt the annual DiveIn festival which is designed to highlight inclusion and opportunity in the global insurance industry.

In the latest protests members of the Education Climate Coalition, Insure Our Survival and Insure Tomorrow targeted high-profile industry panels sponsored by AXA and Howden, at the Festival’s Closing Event, confronting executives over what they said was the insurance sector’s role in environmental and humanitarian destruction.

The protests challenged what campaigners call complicity in genocide and climate chaos by insurers profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza and fossil fuel expansion. This follows controversial statements made by Lloyd’s senior leadership about Lloyd’s remaining ‘apolitical’ on global issues.

The first action targeted an AXA/Howden-sponsored event held in the Howden offices of 1 Creechurch Place attended by the CFO of AXA XL and the CEO of Howden Climate Risk & Resilience. Two protesters held up a banner reading ‘Insure Our Survival Not Fossil Fuels’. The entire room was cleared of its audience, but not before panellists started accusing audience members at random of being a part of the action for taking pictures of the action. Protestors were then escorted by security out of the building.

One of the accused audience members, in a statement to the panellists, said: “I think at a panel on inclusion, when there’s a protest on the genocide and fossil fuels, it’s important we listen to it. […] I think there’s a space to listen to everybody. I came certainly not expecting [this].”

Only an hour later, further disruption occurred at the Dive In Festival’s Closing Event within the Lloyd’s building. This is despite all students and members of NGOs being blanketly denied entry due to heightened security due to actions on the 16th by the same group and on the 17th by Mothers Rise Up featuring an entire orchestra. During the keynote address, a protestor stood with a banner stating ‘Complicit in Genocide’ and shouting ‘Lloyd’s, Lloyd’s, you can’t hide, you’re insuring genocide.’ The livestream of the event was promptly suspended and the protestor removed by security.

The Dive In Festival, created by Inclusion@Lloyd’s, promotes “diversity and inclusion in insurance” aiming to tackle talent shortages in the sector. But young  activists say these efforts are meaningless as long as the industry continues to underwrite projects which disproportionately harm underrepresented communities.

In a statement the groups added: “The protests highlighted a growing rejection of the insurance industry among young people. According to a recent poll, just 13% of students say they would ever consider a career in insurance attractive, a historic low.”