FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 17, 2025

CONTACT
Carter Dougherty
carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

Report and Dataset Shows Climate Change Driving Up Insurance Costs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) released a report revealing how climate change is making homeowners insurance more expensive and harder to obtain across the United States. The report analyzes zip code level data—much of which was also released—obtained from insurers by FIO and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). 

The report includes data and analysis regarding homeowners insurance policy claims, losses, premiums, nonrenewals, and cancellations. Notably, seven state insurance commissioners—including some from highly climate vulnerable states like Louisiana and Florida—refused to participate, and Texas only provided some data. 

“This report and dataset provides hard evidence for a trend that homeowners are already experiencing: climate change is making it harder for people to find affordable insurance, if they can find it at all,” said Kelsey Condon, policy counsel for climate finance at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “Access to granular data is critical to hold insurers accountable as well as to help build financial and physical resilience in communities across the country.” 

“FIO’s report and data distribution is the first step towards federal acknowledgment of the financial hardship facing communities across the entire country due to climate-driven insurance disruption. Moving forward, FIO must continue its efforts with NAIC to expand the scope of this data collection and release the results on an annual basis,” said Jessica Garcia, senior policy analyst for climate finance at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “State insurance commissioners should also ask hard questions of insurers, prioritize protecting consumers, and appropriately integrate the risks of climate change and opportunities of climate resilience into long-term planning and decision making.”  

As insurance disruptions grow, so do the frequency and impacts of climate change-fueled events driving this crisis: catastrophic flooding in the Northeast, escalating wildfires ravaging the Western U.S., two consecutive hurricanes that devastated the Southeast, and record temperatures across the country. 

This announcement follows a call from eight Senators urging FIO to release both the report and the underlying data, as well as ongoing efforts by AFREF and consumer advocates urging the same. AFREF submitted comments to FIO in response to the data call proposal in 2022 and to the Office of Management and Budget as it considered the data call in 2023.

###