We push for rules to build resilience and enable a just and equitable transition. Requiring regulators, financial institutions, and other corporations to reckon with the costs of climate change is an important part of the puzzle.
The rising costs and decreased availability of insurance as a result of increasingly severe climate change-driven disasters, coupled with inadequate insurance regulation, is a growing crisis contributing to housing unaffordability. We are bringing people together to develop and demand community-led solutions that advance climate, housing, and racial justice.
Advocacy
Resources
Blog
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AFREF Supports Campaign to Lower Home Energy Costs through FHFA Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards
Since fall 2023, AFREF and partners have been part of an ongoing Campaign for Lower Home Energy Costs. The goal is for The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to require new homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be built to modern energy codes. FHFA should use its existing authority to
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Blog Post: Bluelining: How Climate Change is Driving an Insurance Crisis
Financial institutions like insurers, banks, and mortgage lenders, might raise prices or simply withdraw from major markets they deem environmentally risky. If that sounds trivial, consider that in the case of property insurance we’re already seeing these exclusions cover entire states.
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Press Releases
News Release: California Hands $500M Insurance Bailout Bill to Families & Homeowners
The California State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approved a $1 billion bailout of the state’s FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) plan to help cover over 3,400 claims it has received due to the devastating Los Angeles fires. The FAIR plan provides insurance to consumers who were dropped by their private insurers.
AFR In the News
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In the News: NOAA’s Move to End Climate Disaster Database Threatens to Drive Up Insurance Costs
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s recent decision to stop updating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database would threaten to drive up insurance costs for consumers already struggling to afford rising premiums, according to a letter signed by 40 environmental and consumer protection organizations sent to Derek Arndt, director of NOAA’s
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In the News: An Insurance Crisis Compounded by Climate Change Threatens the Broader U.S. Economy (Inside Climate News)
Climate change could soon mark a “death spiral” for the financial industry in parts of the country. “People place a lot of value, besides economic value, on where they live, and a lot of people don’t have the resources to move anyway,” said Alex Martin, policy director at Climate and Finance at Americans for Financial Reform.
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Climate-Fueled Insurance Crisis Threatens U.S. Housing and Financial Stability (Program Business)
Rate hikes are not a sustainable solution to the climate-fueled insurance crisis, especially for those unable to relocate. “People aren’t able to afford the cost increases that are coming right now,” says Alex Martin of Americans for Financial Reform.
