This seems an appropriate time to repost my latest article on climate change and the insurance industry. - ThreadSky

davidrvetter.bsky.social • 170 days ago

This seems an appropriate time to repost my latest article on climate change and the insurance industry.

🚨NEW from me: Climate change caused over a third of weather-related insurance losses this century, and the insurance industry simply isn't ready for what's coming. Featuring @insureourfuture.bsky.social, with comment from @laurielaybourn.bsky.social. Special thanks to @thierryaaron.bsky.social!

Comments

glaspa.bsky.social•169 days ago

Absolutely. This discussion needs to be normalized and mainstreamed. If the media isn’t including this in their nightly reporting of the fires they aren’t doing their jobs.

lexsokolin.bsky.social•170 days ago

Can’t model black swans of this correlation

jeffrethecat.bsky.social•170 days ago

Well maybe the insurance industry should start fighting for climate solutions like renewable energy as a business decision. Best outcomes for the planet will be wise business decisions.

tarrog71.bsky.social•169 days ago

I always thought that the insurance industry would be at the forefront of fighting climate change, fossil fuels, etc., for their own self interest, if nothing else. In fact, the thought gave me reassurance.
Wrong again!

fishrise.bsky.social•170 days ago

At the Geneva COP ('96) the two big euro insurers, Munich Re & Swiss Re, went public with warnings abt climate change.

Thereafter I used their annual Disaster claims reports (a lot). Great data.

It was when I first realised there were huge corporate $ incentives to curb global warming.

rachaeltiddles.bsky.social•170 days ago

Yes the climate scientists I know say the insurers are decades ahead, make it their business to manage their own risk - what is expensive now may be uninsurable soon, but a stampede is also bad for the bottom line

fishrise.bsky.social•170 days ago

Hard $ data too. Very difficult to dispute/deny. Then linked to stories you can see like Florida homes (& now oil refineries and loads more).

And unlike too much science, mostly told in language everyone can understand.

Geneva was a revelation for me.

davidrvetter.bsky.social•170 days ago

Yes - here's my latest report on Swiss Re's climate work.

fishrise.bsky.social•168 days ago

If it is possible to be fond of data, then I've long been a sucker for Swiss Re. Munich Re too.

Also: Americans disproportionately build their homes out of wood. They burn, get flattened in storms and swept away in floods and on beaches.

The 3 Little Piggies come to mind.

cubtrader.bsky.social•170 days ago

📌

theomnisis.bsky.social•170 days ago

It makes you wonder at what point the insurance [re-insurance] industry turns on the fossil fuel industry / MSM / government lobbyists etc. Will they be prepared to accept the destruction of their industry? What happens - they keep having to make massive payouts so premiums go up [cont]

theomnisis.bsky.social•170 days ago

and people can't pay so start being uninsured or they start refusing people insurance in "hotspots" - same scenario from different angles. DO they lay blame on the oil and gas industry and start to refuse to insure the tankers? The refineries? The drilling platforms etc?

wndlb.bsky.social•170 days ago

Ask Uncle Warren Buffett: he has yuge investments on both sides

tinydbass.bsky.social•170 days ago

In these cases won't the insurance industry just "not care" in that they simply won't insure? Won't it be homeowners and, by extension, government, that will have more of an incentive to go after fossil fuel companies since they're the ones with uninsurable (and severely devalued) assets?

theomnisis.bsky.social•170 days ago

Probably - but [here's looking at you, US health insurance] the entire insurance market feels more like a pyramid scheme / ponzi scheme than insurance - if they start down the road of just not insuring vast swathes of people / businesses, then the ramifications for the economy are huge...[cont]

theomnisis.bsky.social•170 days ago

but yes, if the insurance industry starts to just not insure.. whether that's homeowners in fire risk / flood risk areas or businesses involved in climate change, then hopefully government pressure should eventually kick in. The fossil fuel lobby can surely only do so much.

tinydbass.bsky.social•170 days ago

I'm not here to defend insurance industry, but even a perfectly ethical version still won't be able to insure houses that have a significant chance of being destroyed by climate impacts. And any government intervention just means tax payers taking on risk that's deemed too great statistically.

zoesamuel.bsky.social•170 days ago

I think that point is less than 15 years away, and maybe less than 5. It'll be like Godzilla vs Kong except nuclear energy is one of the good guys.

theomnisis.bsky.social•170 days ago

until there's another Fukushima created by [insert climate crisis induced disaster] - it feels like we can try to put in all the safety controls we want but in the end, nature will do what nature will do...

matthannon.bsky.social•170 days ago

A good time for my perennial post that (maybe naiively) frames the insurance industry as a potential white knight for climate action. The chain reaction would be dramatic and impact on developers, planners, property retailers etc.

matthannon.bsky.social•170 days ago

My less rosy take is this shifts the emphasis onto adaptation, not mitigation, as adaptation can (to a some extent) be managed at the property level.

By extension, the (insurance premium fuelled) cost burden will fall on those unable to afford to purchase or retrofit climate adapted properties.

davidrvetter.bsky.social•170 days ago

Some of the big reinsurers have been fairly careful to highlight mitigation and the importance of *not* insuring fossil fuel projects, but as you note, expecting the private sector to come up with an integrated systematic approach is probably naive.

davidrvetter.bsky.social•170 days ago

- to that point, what we're seeing on the ground, increasingly, is the socialisation of losses.

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