The Climate Crisis Is Breaking Insurance

About this episode

This episode discusses how the climate crisis is impacting the insurance system, particularly in the context of the Los Angeles wildfires.

Thousands of people lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires. Now, they're looking to their insurance companies to help them rebuild. But as the world warms, disasters like these are becoming more frequent and more severe, exposing an insurance system that isn't equipped to cover the rising damages. In Los Angeles, people who lost everything were left to fend for themselves. This is just the latest example of how insurance is failing to keep up with climate change. In this episode of A Matter of Degrees , we're joined by Dave Jones , California's Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018 and the current Director for the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. We dive into how the climate crisis is breaking our home insurance system, what we can do to fix it, and how to make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share.

People in this episode

Hosts: Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson

Guest: Dave Jones

Topics covered

• climate change
• insurance
• wildfires
• disaster recovery
• fossil fuels

Keywords

• insurance crisis
• climate risk
• home insurance
• wildfire recovery
• fossil fuel accountability

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment

Places: California, Los Angeles

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