LASG Commends AXA Mansard for Fighting against Climate Change

Ebere Nwoji

AXA Mansard Insurance has been commended by the Lagos State Government for continued fight against climate change.

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Climate Change and Circular Economy, Titi Oshodi,  gave the commendation during  a commemorative walk to raise awareness about the impact of waste on water in Lagos organised by AXA Mansard  in commemoration of its annual AXA Week for Good, the flagship programme of AXA Hearts. 

 Oshodi had  joined the leadership and staff of  AXA in the commemorative walk to celebrate the annual event.

During the event, AXA Mansard employees, under the “TrashToTreasure” initiative, collected waste from their homes, offices, and environment and converted it into funds, which the company would donate to provide health insurance for vulnerable children under the Chess-In-Slums Africa Foundation.

Speaking during the awareness walk that preceded a beach clean-up by AXA employees in Lagos,  Oshodi  noted that the government was proud of organisations like AXA Mansard that were  keenly interested in working to mitigate the impact of climate change. 

 She said, “At the Lagos State Office of Climate Change and Circular Economy, our goal is to ensure that the governor’s vision for a zero-carbon Lagos by 2050 is not a mirage. This is because we have seen that the impact of climate change is no longer a concept. It is real”.

She quoted the Lagos State Climate Action Plan 2020 – 2025, as saying that more than half of 21 million residents  in Lagos live in informal settlements, which rendered them highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

 She said the Lagos State Adaptation and Resilience Plan (LCARP) estimated the impact of climate inaction at $22-29bn – 11 times the state’s 2022 annual budget.

“So when we see partners like AXA Mansard doing more than just raising awareness but getting their employees to act for the climate, we must commend them because we want them to do more as we journey to our vision 2050″, she stated.

 Expressing further her delight in what the AXA Mansard has done she said “I am especially delighted because of this year’s commemoration theme, TrashToTreasure. This theme fits well with the ambition of my office to ensure that we address the challenges of climate change, not just by awareness and advocacy, but to entrench circularity into the mix. So, when I heard that AXA Mansard is not just collecting waste, they are valourising the waste to provide health insurance for vulnerable children, I thought this is a model initiative because it embodies the whole idea of circularity, which is using waste for economic, social and environmental good”, she stated.

Appreciating the gesture from the state government, Chief Client Officer, AXA Mansard, Rashidat Adebisi, said that AXA remained unrelenting in its quest to ensure that its sustainability agenda of fighting climate change and protecting the vulnerable population has an impact and makes the world safer, healthier, and more prosperous.

“We are delighted and encouraged to have you here today as we once again collectively express our purpose of acting for human progress by protecting what matters”.