Honest Conversation on the Insurability Crisis

Climate change is making insurance harder to afford and, in some places, harder to obtain—leaving communities across the United States increasingly exposed to financial and climate risk. Yet, many of the insurers responsible for protecting communities from climate impacts continue to underwrite and invest in fossil fuel projects, accelerating the crisis and reaping massive profits while increasingly passing the cost of climate damage onto consumers and state budgets. As the insurability crisis deepens, this event will center the experiences of New Yorkers facing rising premiums, coverage gaps, and growing uncertainty about their financial security. Community leaders, advocates, NY legislators, and insurance experts will explore the role insurers can and must play in confronting the crisis they are helping fuel—and what meaningful reform could look like. Building on New York's proposed Insure Our Communities Act, the conversation will examine opportunities to protect communities while holding insurers accountable for their role in driving climate risk. New York's proposed legislation explicitly links insurance affordability and availability with insurers' underwriting and investment in new fossil fuel projects. The event will also feature the release of a new community survey and report from New York Communities for Change, Stop the Money Pipeline, and partners on how the insurance crisis is affecting New Yorkers.