The insurance industry's bottom line offers the clearest, least political evidence that a stable economy and livable communities are increasingly dependent on strategies to address extreme weather impacts. California, Louisiana, and Florida have become harbingers of a spreading issue: disaster-related property losses that continuously exceed underwriting profitability. The resulting gaps in affordability and availability are driving property owners to states' insurer-of-last-resort programs or, more and more often, to forgo coverage for their greatest risks.  

As warmer ocean water and sea level rise fuel more destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons, Florida homeowner's insurance costs more than three times the national average, and an estimated 15-20% of property owners are uninsured. In Louisiana, the withdrawal of the insurance industry has caused the state's FAIR plan enrollment to grow 400% in just four years.  

Wildfire risk has grown as well. The fires in Los Angeles earlier this year are projected to become the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history, around $50 billion more than the total damages from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Major insurers had already dropped 2.8 million policies in fire-prone areas of the state since 2020. Now, the state's FAIR plan is struggling to bear the weight of its own growing exposure as homeowners find themselves without other options for coverage.  

In the Ten Across region and beyond, there is growing interest in insurance mechanisms and governance which, rather than simply reflecting and reacting to risk, can be adapted as tools for better preparation and response.    

Carolyn Kousky founded the nonprofit Insurance for Good to meet this need. Listen in to learn more about how Carolyn’s work connects local leaders to deep industry knowledge and encourages the industry to participate actively in global climate resilience and energy transition efforts.   

About our guest: 

Carolyn Kousky is the founder of Insurance for Good, a nonprofit focused on improving equity in disaster recovery, accelerating the energy transition, and driving investments in resilience. She is also the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future and the Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at Environmental Defense Fund. Prior to that, Carolyn was Executive Director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on a number of public and private advisory boards, including on the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.


Related articles and resources:

Insurance for Good  

Hear from other experts on insurance in the 10X geography: Dave Jones, Latisha Nixon-Jones, Jesse Keenan, Amy Bach  

“Improving household and community disaster recovery: Evidence on the role of insurance” (Xuesong You, Carolyn Kousky, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2024)  

“Leveraging insurance for decarbonization” (Carolyn Kousky, Joseph W. Lockwood, Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience, 2024)  

“REPORT: The 2024 Miami-Dade Property Insurance Strategy Forum” (The Miami Foundation, 2024)  

"FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs” (Grist, April 2025)  

Credits:

Host: Duke Reiter  

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith  

Music by: Lennon Hutton  

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler