Insurance carriers have denied claims and are facing more claims for losses "related to accelerating climate-related disasters, such as California's fires last fall, and lawsuits that target fossil fuel companies as some of the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitters." Reportedly, not one penny has been paid out in insurance proceeds in lawsuits alleging damage from climate change.
Don't hold your breath (unless you're standing outside, in certain areas), but newly filed lawsuits may affect that outcome, including a new lawsuit filed "by California cities and based on public nuisance law, seeks to hold Exxon, BP, and other oil companies accountable for flooding caused by sea level rise." Jacques Leslie, "Insurers Are Backing Fossil Fuel Companies and Then Charging You For Climate Change Risks" (Los Angeles Times Online, Tuesday, March 13, 2018).
If insurance carriers routinely and successfully deny claims for damage allegedly caused by climate change, how can Exxon, BP, and other oil companies sued in the reported new lawsuit as "accountable for flooding caused by sea level rise," claim that these losses are "fortuitous"? That they were all the results of an "accident"?
Or that an act of humanity ought to be treated by insurance law as an act of God?
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