[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to AMBASS.io. [SPEAKER_02]: the National Oceanic and atmospheric administration's decision to archive its billion dollar weather and climate disaster's database comes at a critical time for the insurance industry. [SPEAKER_02]: As climate driven disasters grow in frequency and severity, losing access to this public data, risks deepening the insurance affordability crisis and leaving communities less prepared.
[SPEAKER_02]: with this gap in national tracking ensures now have a greater role to play in sharing data, supporting resilience, and helping stakeholders understand the true cost of risk. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Lori Chortis for AMBEST TV. [SPEAKER_02]: And joining us now to discuss that is Charlie Sedotti. [SPEAKER_02]: He's executive director of in-sure, a nonprofit supporting innovative insurance solutions. [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie, welcome. [SPEAKER_02]: It's so great to see you again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for joining us. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, thanks. [SPEAKER_00]: Great to be here. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much. [SPEAKER_00]: Excited to talk about this. [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie, can you tell us about Noah's decision to no longer track the cost of climate-driven weather disasters in its public database? [SPEAKER_02]: And what are the potential implications of that for ensures? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the decision to no longer track it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, is we think it's problematic for a number of reasons. [SPEAKER_00]: One, uh, Noah has an incredible credibility as kind of an independent arbiter of some of the, of a lot of different data including this database. [SPEAKER_00]: So just the, the headlines, the generate out of this on a regular basis. [SPEAKER_00]: It, it motivates people to buy insurance.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think one implication is the uptake of insurance is not going to get that pump from from the, the information that's coming out. [SPEAKER_00]: But even beyond that, there are implications around innovation. [SPEAKER_00]: We think it's going to slow innovation. [SPEAKER_00]: We know a lot of the carriers do have data. [SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of the innovators are kind of outside the carriers, some of the insure texts, they often start with this data.
[SPEAKER_00]: And certainly at the communities, the communities rely on this data for the economic development and resilience planning. [SPEAKER_00]: which ultimately makes their communities more insurable. [SPEAKER_02]: So how might this decision worsen the insurance affordability and accessibility crisis, especially in high risk regions?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so the activities of investment into resilience by communities, they often start with an understanding of where the losses are, who they're affecting, what's driving them, [SPEAKER_00]: And often, there's a misalignment between investments in resilience. [SPEAKER_00]: There's often, I mean, there's definitely not enough investment in adaptation, but communities are increasing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the driver of insurability and affordability, accessibility of insurance. [SPEAKER_00]: And we think that the loss of the database will increase the kind of misalignment of investments into resilience and also innovation on the insurance side to align products to the needs of communities, all of which make insurance less accessible and less affordable unfortunately.
[SPEAKER_02]: with the loss of this centralized public data, shouldn't shares begin sharing more of their internal disaster and claims data to help fill the gap. [SPEAKER_00]: We think more transparency around insurance data, it helps communities which actually ultimately helps the industry. [SPEAKER_00]: We think one of the biggest challenges is aligning interest between the products being developed within the industry and the needs of communities.
[SPEAKER_00]: which also does tie back to how communities are investing in land use, infrastructure, building codes, all of which requires data. [SPEAKER_00]: The insurers definitely are at a data advantage to the community so the more that they can share data with the communities can help the communities of create better markets for the industry. [SPEAKER_02]: What responsibility does the insurance industry have in helping communities understand their total cost of climate risk?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there is a little bit of a moral responsibility, but even beyond that, there is a self-interest in creating the markets that the industry wants to sell into. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think they can do good or do well by doing good and supporting communities to integrate [SPEAKER_00]: this concept of insurability planning into their economic development planning, and the more they help communities do that, the more they create markets for themselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: How could the sun setting of Noah's database impact climate innovation and research? [SPEAKER_02]: And what role can ensures play in supporting continued progress? [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of data in the last database, but even other data that maybe hasn't been sunseted yet that potentially could be impacted based on some of the discussions we hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, I talked a little bit earlier about data availability to innovators outside the industry, but even within the industry, the industry uses some of this data [SPEAKER_00]: But one area that going forward really concerned about is a emergence of kind of parametric products as a possible solution to some of the affordability accessibility crisis parametric solutions need metrics that are often complex and often emanate out of NOAA in different places.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we think it's really important that be credible kind of data sources that are not specific industry data sources to trigger these parametric products and it is really important to maintain some of those and maybe some of those are part of this database, you know, could potentially be restored somehow either through the government or through third parties. [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie, insure is urging insurers to step up.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are some specific ways that carriers can help improve transparency, preparedness, and resilience in the absence of public data?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think as communities are engaging more in investing in resilience, the question they often have for us is how does it affect the insurability of our community and the more the industry, the companies in the industry can engage with communities and be very transparent about if you do these investments that reduce your risk [SPEAKER_00]: We will do these things related to price terms, conditions, the availability of insurance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond even a one year, maybe they can't give exact quotes for five, ten, fifteen years, but they can give commitments to stay in markets. [SPEAKER_00]: And really kind of act as a partner that if the communities invest in reducing risk, the carriers can commit to providing the products and services that they need over a longer time horizon, [SPEAKER_00]: And with some indication of what will happen to the price, that's what the communities need to continue to invest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we think that the industry can really be good partners and transparent about what they will do in the future. [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie, it's always a pleasure. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. [SPEAKER_00]: It's always a pleasure to be here. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much for having me. [SPEAKER_02]: that was insure executive director, Charlie Sedody. [SPEAKER_02]: For Am Best TV, I'm Lori Chortis.
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