Obtaining homeowners insurance used to be relatively easy, but as climate risk increases with more severe weather disasters, insurance providers are raising their premium rates or withdrawing from climate-vulnerable regions entirely. On Friday, Ethnic Media Services -- a nonprofit that works to enhance the capacity of diverse news outlets -- hosted a virtual national briefing discussing the homeowner affordability crisis in climate change-vulnerable areas.
Carolyn Kousky, a panelist from the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental nonprofit working toward climate change solutions, talked about how individuals with insurance who faced climate disasters were more likely to have a better financial recovery from the disaster when compared to those who were uninsured. Kousky emphasized the importance of risk reduction to curb the effects of the crisis. She encouraged homeowners to make sure their homes were built to fight climate risk.