2024-04-04 08:59:26
The increase in extreme weather events and the considerable damage they cause threatens the financial stability of insurers. So much so that some are starting to withdraw from the most exposed regions. In France, a report suggests changing the rules of the game to avoid the formation of “insurance deserts”.
In the United States, climatic phenomena causing more than a billion dollars in damage could be counted on the fingers of one hand in the 1980s: 3 per year, on average. In the 2010s, we increased to an average of 13 per year. Last year there were 28. To the extent that many insurers are completely withdrawing from the most exposed states like California or Florida. France is not spared from this phenomenon. In the summer, thousands of hectares of forest go up in smoke every year, fires which now affect regions that have historically been spared. Recently, the north of the country was hit by a series of spectacular floods a few weeks apart.
France is one of the pioneering countries since it created in 1982 a compensation system for natural disasters which guarantees a form of national solidarity even in these extreme situations. But faced with less and less exceptional phenomena, this regime is today threatened. Last year alone, climate disasters cost French insurers 6 and a half billion euros. And the bill risks becoming unsustainable very quickly. As in the United States, some French municipalities are already no longer able to find insurers. Aware of the risk of the appearance of “insurance deserts”, the French government last year mandated three experts responsible for proposing solutions: Thierry Langreney, former insurer and president of the NGO “ Workshops of the future », Gonéri Le Cozannet, co-author of the 6th IPCC report, and Myriam Merad, research director at the CNRS. Their report was made public on Tuesday April 2.
“Change the rules of the economic game. »
In front of “ climate inflation » to use the expression of Thierry Langreney, it was urgent and imperative to refinance the natural disaster compensation scheme, in structural deficit since 2016. The rapporteurs estimate the needs at 1.3 billion euros per year, without even take into account ” the inevitable future effects of global warming “. The government, which has had this report in its hands for several months, did not wait to follow their first recommendation: from January 1, the additional premium on home insurance which finances the bulk of this plan will increase from 12 to 20%. .
Then to avoid the appearance of “ insurance deserts » they suggest “ change the rules of the economic game » by transforming this additional premium into “ bonus-malus fiscal » depending on the exhibition area. If their proposal were followed, the share of this 20% which would fall to insurers both to remunerate themselves and to compensate for possible damage would be lower for insured goods in the least exposed areas and higher in areas where the risk climate is more important. To put it even more clearly: insurers would earn more money by fully playing the game of national solidarity when they are losing money today.
Read alsoThe distress of the inhabitants of Nord-Pas-Calais hit again by floods
The mother of all battles
The rapporteurs rule out the other solution which would consist of letting insurers freely increase premiums in the most exposed areas, even if they suggest two exceptions: owners of second homes and owners of rental properties to encourage these players to do so. established financial base to invest by carrying out the work necessary to protect their property.
Prevention is in fact “ the mother of battles », recalls Thierry Langreney. The measures they recommend will not count if nothing is done to limit global warming as much as possible and avoid the worst-case scenario. On a local scale, reinforcing the resistance of buildings will always cost the community less than reimbursing the damage linked to disasters that are less and less natural and less and less exceptional.
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