Hosts: Kate Lamble & Jordan Dunbar
Guests: Ernst Rauch | Chief Geo & Climate Scientist | Munich Re &
Robin McConchie | Reporter &
Maryam Golnaraghi | Director, Climate Change & Environment | The Geneva Association
Category: 🗳️ Policy | Insurance
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[1:00] JD: “We're looking at insurance asking whether it can provide a safety net for our homes and businesses as the climate changes. […] At the end of February, a massive weather system formed off the coast of Australia. […] So much water was released that people started calling it a rain bomb.”
[1:57] RM: “We got 80% of Brisbane’s average rainfall in three days. We got more rain in three days than you get in London in a year. […] It really only took a couple of days for the whole city to be underwater.”
[6:26] MG: “In places where insurance is available to more people, businesses, and governments recover much faster and more efficiently after a disaster than places that they don't have that. In fact, it's shown that those that have access to insurance may even experience positive economic activity. […] They potentially could make more money coming from economic activity from building back.”
[7:21] JD: “ In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in the United States, and cost the insurance industry something like 66 billion US dollars.”
[7:33] MG: “Despite massive losses that the industry has incurred over the last years associated with extreme level of weather related risks, you have not heard of a company becoming as a result, insolvent or in other words to go bankrupt.”
[8:18] MG: “Insurance companies are actually taking a lot of steps in conducting adaptation research. […] They're looking at ways a homeowner can reduce the risks of floods to their homes. And then if the policyholder actually does make those changes, insurance companies offer incentives by way of, for example, reduced premiums.”
[13:02] ER: “A so-called once in 100 year flood has now a higher probability or higher frequency, it's a once in a 20 year or 50 year event. […] Very often developing countries have less than 5%, sometimes less than 1%, of their economic losses covered by insurance solutions.”
[18:55] MG: “Traditionally, an insurance company offers insurance to policyholders for an incurred loss. So you need to have historical records of damage or loss to homes, to cars, and other things to be able to design the insurance program. That data is not available in developing economies.”
[21:35] JD: “The insurance industry can't deal with this all on their own. Governments have to play a role here, either providing insurance, or setting rules to stop housing being built in high risk areas.“
Rating: 💧💧💧
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify
🕰️ 28 min | 🗓️ 03/20/2022
✅ Time saved: 26 min
