Commentary: You don’t need a degree to understand climate change, just an insurance policy

You don’t need to be a scientist to understand the harms of climate change. All you need is an insurance policy. And finding affordable insurance is getting harder in the places hit hardest by climate change. In 2023, 398 global natural disaster events created $380 billion in losses, the highest on record. Insurance companies have raised prices by nearly 40% in the last two years. Decades of denial and delay have proved to be an expensive distraction. Higher premiums are also just the tip of the iceberg of the financial risks of climate change. When state-run, last-resort insurance programs become overburdened, taxpayers end up footing the bill. Rate hikes will not discriminate between those who believe in the dangers of the climate crisis and those who choose not to. ~ Carly Fabian, Public Citizen’s Climate Program