Carolyn Kousky On Building Resilience Through Insurance

Dr. Carolyn Kousky is a true believer in the power of insurance for building climate resilience. So much so that she recently founded Insurance for Good, a new nonprofit dedicated to harnessing insurance for social and environmental resilience.

In this episode, Carolyn — who also serves as Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund — talks about this new initiative and shares her insights into the evolving role of insurance in climate resilience, disaster recovery, and financial protection.

She and Louie also get into the weeds of recent climate disasters, like the Los Angeles wildfires, and dive into the challenges incentivizing local governments and individuals alike to invest in climate-proofing measures. They then discuss the pressures on state-convened insurers-of-last-resort and the promise of alternative models of insurance — like parametric approaches — for addressing the growing climate protection gap.

Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

We talk about:

👉 What Insurance for Good is all about — improving equity in disaster recovery, driving investments in resilience, accelerating the energy transition, and supporting nature-positive approaches

👉 Why insurance markets are under growing strain from climate risks, and what that means for homeowners, businesses, and governments

👉 The growing insurance protection gap, particularly for non-property-related disaster costs and vulnerable populations

👉 How risk transfer solutions — from parametric insurance to state-backed insurance pools — can help communities recover faster and more equitably after disasters

👉 How climate risk and insurance tech startups are working to close data gaps and improve resilience-building incentives

👉 The challenges of managed retreat and how insurance could help guide communities toward safer futures

Thanks for listening!

Louie Woodall
Editor