CALIFORNIA – The California Department of Insurance (CDI) is accepting public comment on a wildfire insurance coverage proposal via email and a virtual public hearing September 17, 2024.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara says this is the final phase of approving a “first of its kind” catastrophe modeling and ratemaking regulation that will help restore options for all Californians and prepare for the reality of climate change.
AI catastrophe models will predict destruction
According to Lara, climate-driven mega-fires burning across the state makes it clear that relying on decades-old regulations only hurts CDI’s ability to prepare for the future.
“The regulation posted today details the commitments that insurance companies must make in future rate filings to write more policies in wildfire distressed areas as a condition for using wildfire catastrophe modeling to more accurately assess wildfire risks they will write,” said the news release.
The Sustainable Insurance Strategy will use AI catastrophe models based on historic disaster data and estimates of future losses to generate scenarios for predicting destruction.