Environmental Law

“Over time you’ll see even more insurance company insolvencies, more insurance price increases and less insurance availability, more mortgage defaults, and falls in asset values and credit freezes; as opposed to a single catastrophic event or events where a bunch of financial institutions nationally go down at once,” said Dave Jones, director Climate Risk Initiative, CLEE. Although, he added, “There is some risk of that as well.” 

“The discount is nice and it’s a positive development, but it doesn’t matter if they won’t write you the insurance,” says Dave Jones, former insurance commissioner of California and now director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law.

Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment weighs in as California considers a major overhaul of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“Insurance is the climate crisis canary in the coal mine, and the canary is dying,” said Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment.

The opposing positions of the national and state government create unpredictability for the companies that make vehicles. “That creates uncertainty for industry and could help ensure that we’re burning more fossil fuel and more gas guzzlers can be produced in the meantime,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law discusses how climate risk is no longer a “nice to have”, especially as climate disclosure requirements are becoming a regulatory obligation globally and delves into the role of insurance in managing climate risk, the importance of nature-based solutions, and the need for transparency and proactive measures in corporate practices.

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, discusses the new report he co-authored  looking at the cost savings of all-electric construction.

The waiver was created to address California’s unique circumstances of not only pioneering and leading the country in the creation of air-quality and air-emissions control policy, but also of having very specific air-pollution challenges relating to vehicles, geography and industry, said Ted Lamm, associate director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s a bedrock part of the Clean Air Act.”

“Even with the right regulations in place, insurers aren’t known for embracing change,” said Dave Jones, California’s former Department of Insurance head who now runs the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law. “It’s a very conservative industry. You need to show them that an insurer is able to (make money doing this) before others will follow suit.” 

Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law joins Forum to discuss the impact of Trump’s approach to the environment and how California could respond.