Or is it 'California Wildfires in an Age of Climate Change?'
Perhaps ironically, California insurance officials approved homeowners insurance rate hikes in the Summer of 2024. See Brianna Sacks, As Wildfire Risks Intensify, California Insurance Rates Keep Rising, Washington Post (online Aug. 30, 2024), https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/08/29/california-insurance-wildfires-allstate/. One carrier's authorized homeowners rate hike by an average of some 34% was reportedly set to take effect in California in November, 2024, or about two months before wildfires hit Los Angeles with an intensity previously unknown before the advent of climate change.
Climate change has had a huge effect, and continues to have a huge effect, on insurance coverage and rates. “I still believe insurance is the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis. And the canary is just about dead.” Dave Jones, former California Insurance Commissioner, quoted in Ryan Fonseca, Why Your Insurance Costs May Go Up Even if Your Home Wasn’t Burned in L.A. Wildfires, Los Angeles Times (online Jan. 15, 2025), https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2025-01-15/why-your-insurance-premiums-may-go-up-even-if-your-home-wasnt-burned-by-l-a-wildfires-essential-california.
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