Expert panel focuses on how climate change has affected home insurance, seeks solutions

Obtaining homeowners insurance used to be relatively easy, but as climate risk increases with more severe weather disasters, insurance providers are raising their premium rates or withdrawing from climate-vulnerable regions entirely.

Ethnic Media Services — a nonprofit that works to enhance the capacity of diverse news outlets — recently hosted a virtual national briefing to discuss the homeowner affordability crisis in climate change-vulnerable areas. Discussions were driven by a panel consisting of professionals working in the insurance industry. Ricardo Lara, California’s insurance commissioner, was among the panelists.