FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, Oct 1, 2023
CONTACT: Ciara Guerrero, ciara@350colorado.org, 719-360-6794
BREAKING: Coloradans protest insurers financing fossil fuels while abandoning their homes at risk from climate chaos
Survivors of Colorado floods and fires square off with insurers at the Broadmoor
Colorado Spring, CO – Coloradans wielding signs that say ‘‘Wildfires brought to you by Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and Chubb” and “Code Red Climate Emergency” protested an elite gathering of insurers at the Broadmoor hotel.
The ‘Insurance Leadership Forum’ is an annual event where insurance executives and CEOs flock to play golf, network, and hear from impressive world leaders like Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Coloradans like Robin Guthrie, who survived the Waldo Canyon fire in Cascade only to realize that her home wasn’t covered by flood insurance the year after rains poured over the burn scar, have endured financial hardship with rising costs and insurers abandoning entire regions.
“The Waldo Canyon fire we survived caused over 80,000 to evacuate, and affected the access to my home for years- the stress from the fire continued as we struggled to find insurance and coverage for the long-term impacts from flooding that followed the fires.” Robin said at the protest, “Insurers offer fewer and fewer options for homeowner’s insurance policies while insuring fossil fuel expansion projects that cause homes in Colorado to be destroyed by fire and flood”
Coloradans from Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver demand real climate leadership. Residents in Boulder had their homeowner’s insurance dropped by Chubb just last month.
“Where I live in Pueblo, Colorado – there are high rates of cancer, asthma, respiratory illness and many devastating health impacts from the local coal plant. Our community is being treated as a sacrifice zone for coal. We are here to tell insurers to stand with our community against the environmental racism of fossil fuels.”- Jo, organizer with Mothers Out Front, Colorado.
“Chubb said that they are more climate-conscious and should insure fossil fuel projects because they care. That misses the point entirely – they are abandoning homeowners while doubling down on fossil fuel projects that cause extreme events like the Marshall Fire,” said Zabrina Arnovitz, a Boulder resident and organizer with Rainforest Action Network. “Millions of us across the country have no safe place to live anymore; we are all becoming uninsurable because companies like Chubb care more about insuring fossil fuel projects than protecting insurers.”
Coloradans are stating that the insurers underpriced climate risk and are squarely to blame for the climate disasters they are barely surviving. They are demanding that insurers side with homeowners and decrease risk by pulling out of fossil fuel projects, especially fossil fuel expansion projects.
A recent report notes that 39 million homes are at risk of losing insurance due to climate impacts. https://grist.org/housing/climate-risks-place-39-million-homes-at-risk-of-losing-their-insurance/
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NOTES
A September 2023 report covers the top insurers of U.S. coal mining.
https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/Covering-Coal-Insurers-of-US-Coal-Report-2023.pdf
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All image credits – Christian O’Rourke @orourke_photo on Instagram
(More photos available by request)