(Jen Theodore/Unsplash)
Many Californians impacted by homeowner insurance policy changes
Original story by Catalina Villegas
Tens and thousands of California homeowners face challenges with insurance policy renewals amid increasing fire risks. Insurers, limited by historical data, are facing major losses due to climate change as fire risks becoming harder to predict.
“What these climate modelers and this is both art and science, these individuals are saying, if it’s gonna be hotter and drier in California due to climate change, then events that we’ve never seen before now become possible and in that case, insurers will lose a fortune if they’ve written policies cheaply because they used historical data,” says USC Dornsife Provost Professor of Economics and Spatial Sciences and Wrigley Institute faculty affiliate Matthew Kahn.