The Simple Truth: Climate Change is Driving Up Homeowners' Insurance Costs - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

[Uncle Joe]

1. Escalating Extreme Weather Risks Push U.S. Insurance System to Breaking Point

January 15, 2026

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Key Findings

* Uninsured Losses Are Surging: In 2024, global losses from natural disasters reached $318 billion, yet only about one-third of these losses were insured. In the U.S., uninsured losses are rising in size and geographic reach as insurers retreat from high-risk areas.

* Homeowners at Risk: Over 1.9 million home insurance policies have been non-renewed in the U.S. since 2018. States like California, Florida, and Louisiana have been the hardest hit, with some communities facing skyrocketing premiums or no coverage at all.

* Protection Gap Deepens: The share of uninsured homes in the U.S. has more than doubled—from 5% in 2019 to 12% in 2025—as the rising climate risk and market dynamics combine to limit the private insurance sector’s ability to close this gap.

* Public Budgets Under Strain: Without insurance, homes become un-mortgageable, property values plummet, and state budgets suffer. Disaster relief spending by the U.S. government exceeded $110 billion in 2024, diverting resources from long-term resilience investments.

* Nature Can Mitigate Risk: Healthy ecosystems materially reduce flood, heat, and storm damages and can outperform engineered defenses on a cost basis. However, these riskreducing ecosystem services are rarely valued in loss estimates or integrated into insurance pricing—despite evidence that every $1 invested in climate resilience can save up to $13 in avoided losses.

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https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/press-releases/escalating-extreme-weather-risks-push-us-insurance-system-to-breaking-point/

Thanks for the thread Rhiannon