Top UK insurance companies are being named and shamed for "supporting" environmentally and socially destructive activities.

Pressure group Friends of the Earth has issued a league table of financial firms which it says invest in multinational companies whose behaviour is unethical.

The campaigners accuse these companies of clearing forests and habitats, polluting waterways, emitting greenhouse gases and working alongside oppressive regimes.

Household name insurance companies such as Equitable Life, Royal & Sun Alliance and Norwich Union are named.

The FoE report, called Capital Punishment - the Insurance Industry and the Global Environment, surveyed the social and environmental records of 14 multinationals such as Exxon, ICI, Monsanto and Rio Tinto.

The report also lists details of the holdings which UK insurance firms have in them.

Friends of the Earth concludes that the vast majority of investment funds managed by insurance groups are supporting unethical activities.

This is despite the growth in demand for ethical investment funds with "green" investment policies.

Duty to investors

The league table was compiled in response to a survey sent out by FoE.

Top of the table was Edinburgh-based Scottish Equitable.

London-based Equitable Life came bottom.

Company spokesman Nigel Webb said: "It appears that we came bottom of the list, not because we were environmentally unfriendly, but because we simply refused to answer FoE's questions.

"In fact, we do have an ethical fund, though for the balance of our investments we have a specific duty to get the best possible return for our investors."

Friends of the Earth says the insurance industry should push companies to improve their environmental record, not support unethical activities.

Campaigns director Tony Juniper said: "Global events such as extreme weather conditions linked to climate change now cost the insurance industry billions of dollars every year, as well as killing many thousands of people across the planet.

"So the search for a quick buck - as opposed to long-term sustainable rewards - no longer makes social or even financial sense."

In the survey, insurance companies were asked whether they:

operated a sustainable development policy

offered a green or ethical fund

reported on policy implementation

screened mainstream investments on environmental and social grounds

signed up to the insurance industry's environmental statement of commitment.

FoE said that no company was able to demonstrate that it did all these things.

The average positive response was one out of five questions asked.

The campaign group said that since the research was carried out, Prudential Portfolio Management had announced that it would be implementing mainstream screening of UK equity investments.

A Scottish Equitable spokesman said: "We're delighted at this news. We do run two sorts of ethical policies and we take ethical investment very seriously."

No-one from the Association of British Insurers was available to comment.