In 2021, the massive Dixie Fire blazed across nearly a million acres in Northern California, torching more than 1,300 homes and other structures. Many people who lost their homes and businesses had no homeowner’s insurance, an increasingly common predicament in California and other fire-prone regions. Areas vulnerable to flooding find themselves with similar challenges, as we recently saw in Kentucky. The recurrence of catastrophic natural disasters is pricing out many at-risk markets from any meaningful coverage. Still, some experts see this dilemma as an opportunity: Insurance can be a powerful tool to shape human behavior and the economy. Some even think that new forms of insurance, built on technological advances in data collection and machine learning, could be one of the most effective ways to protect the planet and make communities more resilient to climate change.

On Tuesday, September 27, at 9 a.m. Pacific/12 p.m. Eastern, join Annual Reviews, Knowable Magazine and Future Tense for a conversation that will change the way you think about insurance. And, if you can't join us live, please register for access to the on-demand playback delivered to your inbox.

Attendees will learn why disaster insurance is more important than ever for individuals and communities, the risks that climate change poses to disaster insurance as it currently exists, and how new, reinvented forms of insurance could be a positive force for climate resilience and adaptation, helping us to not only recover from natural disasters, but prevent them.

Moderator:

--Emily Underwood, Knowable Magazine

Speakers:

--Alice Hill, Council on Foreign Relations

--Carolyn Kousky, Environmental Defense Fund: Carolyn Kousky studies disaster insurance markets, disaster finance, climate risk management and policy approaches for increasing resilience. She recently became the associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund and previously directed the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future.

This event is part of an ongoing series of live events and science journalism from Knowable Magazine and Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters—such as hurricanes, floods, and storms—are on the rise, threatening our way of life and our livelihoods. Insurance, an often confusing and unpopular tool, is critical to recovery from these crises. Yet, as it becomes ever more essential, insurance markets are under stress, many are uninsured, and insurance often seems divorced from efforts to improve the resilience and sustainability of our communities. How can we improve insurance to provide consistent and sufficient help following all disasters? How do we use insurance not just to help us recover, but also to help us prevent disasters in the first place? And how can insurance help us achieve broader social and environmental goals?

Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund and author of Understanding Disaster Insurance, Carolyn Kousky, will present on why traditional insurance markets fall short in meeting the needs of a world coping with climate change and how new insurance and risk transfer markets can help create thriving and resilient coastal communities and ecosystems. 

Carolyn Kousky, Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environnmental Defense Fund, and Author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future will provide an accessible introduction to the complexities -- and exciting possibilities-- of risk transfer markets in the U.S. and around the world. Ms. Kousky will highlight innovative ideas that put risk transfer to practical use solving society's biggest challenges.

Find out more about how insurance can go beyond being a critical foundation for the economy and human well-being but can also be a strong force for social and environmental good!

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Email Sarah Hart at: shart@insurancelibrary.org

Hosted by The Insurance Library.