Treasury To Assess Climate Effect On Insurance Availability

The Treasury Department is growing increasingly concerned that climate change is making property insurance scarce in disaster-prone areas and is looking at launching the first nationwide assessment of insurers’ financial exposure to climate risk.

The Federal Insurance Office sent a preliminary email Thursday to insurance regulators in all 50 states asking what data they have that would show insurance coverage, liabilities and losses for each ZIP code in their state over the past five years.

The data would help the federal office assess whether insurers are declining to cover homes and businesses in areas that are vulnerable to intensifying storms and wildfires and other effects of climate change.

The office was created after the 2007-2008 financial crisis to monitor the availability of insurance and risks to insurance markets.