Cutting our carbon emissions can cut our property insurance costs

When we invest in technologies like solar energy, we slow the effects of a warming climate and storm events on our property insurance rates. Florida is ground zero for the effects of climate change, and our citizens deserve to have a climate action plan in place to start addressing the cause of climate change.

Florida's Utilities Agree!

A public opinion survey of Florida's utility and energy industry professionals in October showed that 66% of them believe it is important to have a state climate action plan.†

Utilty industry leaders also said that decarbonizing Florida's economy by substituting low-and no-carbon fuel for electricity sources (47%) would be a positive step, and 1 in 3 (33%) say it would create a competitive edge for the state.†


 

† Breakthrough Research survey of Florida utility and related industry leaders conducted Oct. 22-28, 2022.

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Florida's property insurance
industry is crumbling.

  • The property insurance crisis has been severely damaged by Hurricane Ian, with total flood and wind losses between $41 and $70 billion. Ian's record-breaking cost accounts for twice the toll of insured losses compared to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which had been the most expensive storm to ever hit Florida.
  • Insurance carriers just can't keep pace with the number of storm claims, and their loss is outpacing what carriers can charge. Florida's policyholders already pay the nation's highest rates.
  • Leading up to Hurricane Ian, Citizens Insurance-the insurer of last resort-took on about 8,000 new policyholders every week, handling over a million total. In July, state regulators placed 27 companies on a watch list because they were deemed financially unstable.

  • Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation said there are $8.7 billion in estimated insured losses that have been reported from Ian. Hurricane Nicole's privately insured losses will be around $750 million.
  • Even the state's bond ratings agency, FitchRatings released an analysis that pointed to "the combination of the storms continuing to build pressure on Florida's troubled property-insurance system."

Legislators Can Fix This

The Florida Legislature meets to debate what to do about the collapsing property insurance crisis starting December 12, 2022.

The debate should include a discussion about fighting the cause of extreme weather and the climate change that's caused those fierce winds, rising tides, warming seas, and all the costs of increasingly powerful storms, like Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, that destroy our communities and jack-up Florida's home insurance rates.

We are ground zero. Florida legislators must confront what extreme weather costs Florida, and make changes now to reduce our carbon emissions and slow the process of climate change.