Climate change activists want to make California insurance crisis even worse

California homeowners are struggling to find insurance against wildfires and other natural disasters, as the state chases insurance companies away, and as the California Insurance Commissioner fails to hold insurance companies accountable.So what does the California Department of Insurance want to do? Insure “urban forests” against climate change!The department is working on a pilot project to study how it can work with insurance companies still doing business in the state to insure forests against “storms, extreme heat, drought and pests.”The idea is to provide “parametric insurance,” which is a lump sum of money, rather than compensation for losses.(That’s how most earthquake insurance works: It won’t be enough to rebuild your house, but some smaller amount.)The California Department of Insurance is partnering with UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience to explore how insurance policies could protect “green infrastructure.”The United Nations Environment Programme is running a related project, encouraging something called “Total Balance Sheet Transition” (TBS).

The idea is to encourage insurers to write policies to insure the natural environment against the anticipated effects of climate change.The UN’s idea is designed to let government and corporate players interpret the new world of insurance any way they want — and ultimately con, scam, and fleece hard-working families and businesses.Bureaucrats will get new powers and cultivate new corporate allies as they force consumers and property owners to pay more for insurance.Insurance companies will have new justifications to raise rates, supposedly to cover risks like rising sea levels.

The companies might never have to pay claims, since sea levels will only rise several feet under the worst-case scenario.Legislators, regulators, activists, and journalists can continue blaming petroleum companies and their customers for rising seas, wildfires, energy prices, and social and...