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How is climate change limiting access to insurance?

(Context, 1 Jun 2023) Here's how climate change is affecting insurance markets and what State Farm's decision to pull back from California could mean.

Climate change is bringing with it more frequent storms, floods, wildfires and other costly risks, which is in turn making homeowner's insurance increasingly either unaffordable or unavailable in growing parts of the United States.

State Farm, the largest home insurer in the United States in 2022, announced last week it would not accept new applications for homeowners policies in wildfire-ravaged California, a change that has sent shockwaves through insurance markets.

Here is how stronger climate change impacts could drive a potential "end of insurance" in the United States:

What does State Farm's decision mean for access to insurance?

State Farm cited "rapidly growing catastrophe exposure" as among the reasons it will stop accepting new applications in California – a move that could be a harbinger for other insurers' willingness to write policies in increasingly risky areas.

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Context, 1 Jun 2023: How is climate change limiting access to insurance?