Studies from University of Tasmania Further Understanding of Climate Change (Privatizing Climate Adaptation: How Insurance Weakens Solidaristic and Collective Disaster Recovery)

2020 AUG 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Research findings on Environment - Climate Change are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Hobart, Australia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “As losses from extreme weather events grow, many governments are looking to privatize the financing and incentivization of climate adaptation through insurance markets. In a pure market approach to insurance for extreme weather events, individuals become responsible for ensuring they are adequately covered for risks to their own properties, and governments no longer contribute funds to post-disaster recovery.”

Financial support for this research came from Australian Research Council.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Tasmania, “Theoretically, insurance premiums signal the level of risk faced by each household, and incentivize homeowners to invest in adaptive action, such as retrofitting, or drainage work, to reduce premiums. Where risk is considered too high by insurance markets, housing is devalued, in theory leading to retreat from risky areas. In this review article, we evaluate the suitability of private insurance as a mechanism for climate adaptation at a household and community level. We find a mismatch between social understandings of responsibility for climate risks, and the technocratic, market-based home insurance products offered by private insurance markets. We suggest that by constructing increasingly individualized, technical, and calculative evaluations of risk, market-based models of insurance for extreme weather events erode the solidaristic and collective discourses and practices that support adaptive behavior.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation.”

For more information on this research see: Privatizing Climate Adaptation: How Insurance Weakens Solidaristic and Collective Disaster Recovery. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change, 2020;():. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Chloe H. Lucas, University of Tasmania, Geog & Spatial Sci, Hobart, Tas 7005, Australia.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.676. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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