“If you had to pick a canary-in-the-coal-mine industry to measure the extent to which climate change is real, I think insurance is probably the best one I can think of. The balance sheets—they’re not going to lie.”

Climate change is the fundamental driver behind insurers abandoning California, Florida and more than 200 zipcodes elsewhere in the U.S.

2/🧵

Part of what's going on is that regulators can't keep up with the rate at which our climate is changing and the degree to which it's leading to increased payouts.

They're trying to keep policies affordable for regular homeowners and business owners.

But what they're finding out is, sometimes they can't.

Increasingly, some properties are so at risk that the only alternative is the state-funded insurer of last resort.

3/🧵

So guess who is paying to rebuild properties all across the nation when they're destroyed by climate change-driven extreme weather?

You are.

You, the taxpayer.

As one source put it to me, we're socializing the cost of rebuilding where we probably shouldn't.

4/🧵

Others in the insurance industry are coming up with new ways to deal with the problem of extrem weather -- better data and algorithms, internet-of-things connected sensors, you name it.

But at the end of the day, while this can help some homeowners stay, and some businesses recover from catastrophe, nothing can stop the future abandonment of some properties -- and whole swaths of our nation.

Experts in risk -- insurers -- are among those most keenly aware of this.

https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/climate-change-ai-california-texas-insurance-1d993873?st=odorqgionf38o90&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

5/5

@michaelgemar @mimsical

Insurance companies staying silent?

They are increasing premiums to cover losses.

When the risk is to great they will stop covering the risk.

If the corporation can't afford the insurance and the corporation has higher losses due to climate change, who should by lobbying? The insurance company?

@michaelgemar @KayseeColorado @mimsical

As usual, the rich have ways to evade the consequences of their actions. Captive insurers.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/captive-insurance-company.asp

The oil industry has even convinced governments to permit self-serving underwriting
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/03/06/guest-irss-guidelines-on-captive-insurance-leave-some-in-limbo/69971204007/

https://www.eenews.net/articles/a-new-energy-battleground-insurance-for-lng-terminals/

https://news.littlesis.org/2023/08/17/insuring-climate-catastrophe-how-big-insurers-finance-and-prop-up-the-fossil-fuel-industry/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-paradise-papers-1.6628921

https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/how-albertas-new-captives-act-will-benefit-oil-and-gas-companies-1004216203/