[Damian Carrington in The Guardian]

Quite a headline!

"The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments."

Entire regions are becoming uninsurable - for example, the piece highlights home insurance in many parts of California becoming hard to obtain. Much of finance depends on insurance underwriting, so as these effects spread, so do the knock-on impacts on financial markets.

"At 3C of global heating, climate damage cannot be insured against, covered by governments, or adapted to, Thallinger said: “That means no more mortgages, no new real estate development, no long-term investment, no financial stability. The financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable.”"

De-risking the climate crisis is becoming more and more important - and this has been an imperative for decades. The call here to put sustainability goals on the same level as financial goals is smart. But we're in an era where we're turning our backs against this sort of thinking - and towards unadulterated greed, consequences be damned. Getting out of the climate mess means first getting out of this other mess that we're all in.

#Climate

[Link]