Hillary Clinton at COP28 climate talks calls for insurance reform - Reuters
Hillary Clinton at COP28 climate talks calls for insurance reform | Reuters
Hillary Clinton at COP28 climate talks calls for insurance reform
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks during the unveiling of her portrait, at the State Department in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Sunday for reform of the insurance sector, where companies are increasingly withdrawing assistance against climate shocks.
Lower-income countries and workers in nations most affected by climate change are struggling to access insurance to help protect them from economic shocks.
"We need to rethink the insurance industry," Clinton said during a panel on women and climate resiliency. "Insurance companies are pulling out of so many places. They're not insuring homes. They're not insuring businesses."
Clinton earlier this year joined the Arsht-Rock Foundation Resilience Center as a global ambassador on heat, health and gender. The center has pioneered new forms of so-called parametric insurance that offer payments once disasters hit a pre-set extreme.
During Sunday's discussion, Clinton recalled meeting Indian women who described working outdoors in construction, farming or desert salt flats, forced to work in "almost unbearable conditions" because they had no economic alternatives.
But "as the climate changes, as storms increase and drought and heat increase," she said, "it's not just ... poor, hard-working women in India. It's people everywhere who are going to be left out with no backup, no insurance for their business or their home."
In the U.S., insurers have already begun pulling back from risky regions such as California's fire-prone forests or along southeast coastlines hit by hurricanes.
Clinton warned that this trend would escalate. "People in the United States, Europe, they're going to wake up and say, 'What do you mean, I can't get insurance?'"
Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Katy Daigle and Jan Harvey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”