Tobacco Free

Tobacco is the single greatest preventable cause of premature death on the planet today, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where smoking is most prevalent. Tobacco thus disproportionately harms emerging countries’ human resources to the detriment of their social and economic development. Additionally, the healthcare costs associated with smoking outweigh income from tobacco taxes with the total global economic impact from smoking estimated at 2 trillion Euros per year, as much as the cost of armed violence, war and terrorism and more than obesity, alcoholism or climate change. Given the facts, AXA decided that as a responsible insurer and investor, it could not continue to support an industry that represents what is perhaps the greatest public health threat in the world today. In response, under the auspices of the not-for-profit organization “Tobacco Free Portfolios”, AXA ceased both investments and insurance activities with the tobacco industry in 2016. At the time, this commitment represented respectively €1.8bn in general accounts and €10-15m in annual revenues. Other financial institutions—notably BNP Paribas, Natixis and SCOR—have done likewise. Today, AXA and its peers encourage all investors to join the momentum by becoming a signatory to the Tobacco Free Pledge: https://tobaccofreeportfolios.org/the-tobacco-free-finance-pledge/