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Grade: Considerable Exposure to Destructive Companies
Aviva plc is a prominent British multinational insurance company, headquartered in London, serving around 19 million customers across the UK, Ireland, and Canada. It is the largest general insurer in the UK and a leading provider of life and pensions, with additional significant operations in asset management.
Sub Brands
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HQ
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Market Value
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Investments Managed
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Turnover
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Insurance Products
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UK
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$16 billion
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$212 billion
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$14 billion
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Health - Life - Business - Car - Home - Pet - Travel
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Insurance
$
20
million
Fossil Fuel Gross Direct Premiums Written (GDPW) represent the size of Aviva’s business with fossil fuel clients in 2023.
CASE STUDY: PetroChina
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Insured by Aviva
PetroChina, a colossal energy firm and subsidiary of Chinese state-owned CNPC, operates with a deeply troubling global footprint. In Myanmar, its oil and gas pipelines have been directly linked to the forced displacement of indigenous communities, with land seized without proper consent, causing significant disruption to established ways of life. Human rights organisations, including EarthRights International, have put forth serious allegations of PetroChina’s complicity in abuses against ethnic groups, such as the Rohingya, alongside clear evidence of environmental degradation, including widespread deforestation and polluted waterways.
When they confiscated my farm, I was very sad. I could not sleep the whole night. Farms are very important in our life. If we don’t have our farm, how we can survive our life? Now we don’t have enough rice because [we only have] one acre [left]….Everything has being destroyed.
PetroChina’s parent company is also guilty of controversial investments in Sudan’s oil industry, which are widely understood to have provided financial support to the Sudanese military during the horrific Darfur conflict, contributing to immense human suffering. Moreover, the company’s operational integrity has been questioned; a pipeline explosion in 2010 spewed a vast amount of oil into the Yellow Sea, creating one of China’s most severe spills.
Insured by Aviva
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Migrant Abuse
G4S, the world’s second largest security company, is involved in migrant control in the UK via both electronic tagging and immigration detention. As a key provider of electronic monitoring tags, used extensively for migrants, the company’s past record is damning. In 2013, G4S was caught in a fraud, brazenly charging the UK government for tagging individuals who were dead, imprisoned, or no longer in the country. Shockingly, the Ministry of Justice awarded them a new multi-million-pound contract in 2023 for continued surveillance.
Beyond tagging, G4S’s tenure managing immigration detention centres (until 2020), such as the notorious Brook House, has been equally fraught with scandal. A BBC Panorama investigation revealed horrifying abuses by G4S staff against detainees, exposing a culture of verbal and physical mistreatment. These incidents, alongside deaths in custody under G4S’s watch, paint a grim picture of systemic failures in its handling of people in its care, fundamentally undermining claims of humane treatment within the UK’s immigration system.
CASE STUDY: G4S abuse of children in youth detention
- Rainsbrook, Warwickshire
G4S’s management of youth detention in the UK is marked with neglect and abuse of vulnerable children. At Oakhill Secure Training Centre, children have suffered violence, excessive force, and prolonged isolation—practices condemned as unlawful and harmful by inspectors. The legacy of G4S is stained by tragedy: in 2004 at Rainsbrook youth jail, 15-year-old Gareth Myatt died after being pinned down by staff for refusing to clean a sandwich toaster, choking on his own vomit. Despite repeated warnings and damning reports, the cycle of abuse continues, with children trapped in conditions described as chaotic, unsafe, and barely meeting minimum standards of human decency.
You had officers who were restraining a child who was crying out in pain, saying he couldn’t breathe, asking for help, wanting them to stop – and they continued restraining him.
Insured by Aviva
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Migrant Abuse
Mears Group, a prominent private contractor for the UK government, has cemented its position in the highly profitable asylum accommodation sector, largely through lucrative Home Office contracts.
A prime example of Mears’ profit-seeking practices emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the guise of public health, Mears shifted thousands of asylum seekers from community housing into emergency hotels, a move that proved seven times more costly to taxpayers while massively boosting Mears’ profits. The human cost was devastating: these Mears-run hotels became notorious for overcrowding, squalor, and the rampant spread of infections. Residents, some confined to windowless rooms, endured severe declines in mental and physical health, with reports of malnutrition and spoiled food. The tragic death of Adnan Olbeh, a Syrian refugee denied adequate mental health support in a Mears hotel, symbolises this systemic neglect.
Beyond the hotel scandal, Mears’ community housing management is also marred by persistent complaints of neglected repairs and abysmal living conditions, including rat infestations. Accusations of psychological harm from abrupt, unlawful relocations further highlight a profound lack of duty of care.
Investments
Cumulative investments in destructive companies across four areas.
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Fossil Fuels
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Migrant Abuse
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Gaza Genocide
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Controversial Weapons
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Feb 2025
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$3,754,557,283
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$12,331,804
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$881,261,143
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$1,362,095,129
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May 2025
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$3,183,771,947
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$13,445,698
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$1,323,159,817
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$1,371,266,513
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$518,200,000 invested by Aviva
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Controversial Weapons
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Gaza Genocide
BAE Systems is the United Kingdom’s largest arms manufacturer and ranks as the sixth largest globally by revenue. The company is a critical partner in the F-35 Lightning II program and is responsible for approximately 15% of the aircraft’s components. BAE also holds four active military export licences to Israel, issued since 2021.
One of its most controversial products is the M109 howitzer, capable of firing 155mm shells, including white phosphorus rounds and described by BAE as achieving the “optimal balance between lethality… and reliability.”
Human rights groups have presented evidence that these BAE-supplied howitzers were unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza, firing white phosphorus shells into densely populated civilian areas. This constitutes a flagrant war crime under international law, unleashing unspeakable suffering.
Furthermore, a United Nations investigation revealed BAE equipment was deployed in a January 2024 bombing in Gaza that struck a building housing international doctors, including a British surgeon. This incident illustrates how UK-produced weapons are being used to target UK civilians.
$406,500,000 invested by Aviva
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Climate Crisis
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Gaza Genocide
BP, one of the world’s largest energy corporations, is a symbol of ruthless greed and imperial exploitation. Born as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, it was the engine of British imperialism, securing control over Iranian oil through corruption and coercion while the Iranian people were left impoverished and dispossessed.
BP’s legacy is stained with environmental catastrophe and human suffering. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster unleashed nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing untold marine life and devastating ecosystems, all while BP cynically promoted its “Beyond Petroleum” greenwashing campaign.
Now, BP is complicit in genocide, supplying oil that fuels Israel’s brutal war machine against Palestinians. Weeks into the genocide, BP accepted an Israeli gas exploration license, proving yet again its callous disregard for oppressed communities.
$335,000,000 invested by Aviva
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Climate Crisis
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Gaza Genocide
ExxonMobil is a titan of the fossil fuel industry, its operations spanning six continents and its profits built on a foundation of deceit and devastation. By the late 1970s, its own scientists had mapped out the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels—yet ExxonMobil chose to bury the truth, unleashing a decades-long campaign of climate denial and misinformation that poisoned public debate and delayed climate action. The company poured millions into discrediting climate science, manipulating policy, and silencing dissent, all while its executives privately acknowledged the lethal risks of their products.
ExxonMobil’s legacy is soaked in blood and oil. In 2003, the company began supplying Israel with aviation and military fuel, which it has been continuing until today. In light of the International Court of Justice’s 2024 ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, also means that Exxon may be legally liable for complicity in acts of genocide.
Its history is scarred by complicity in coups, such as its role in overthrowing Iran’s democratic government, and by direct involvement in human rights atrocities: Indonesian villagers in Aceh alleged torture, sexual violence, and mass graves at the hands of soldiers guarding Exxon’s gas fields. The company has weaponized international law to sue governments for daring to protect their environment, while suing its own shareholders for demanding climate responsibility.