A Rhode Island senator held a roundtable discussion about rising insurance rates in Raleigh, North Carolina, in October, according to NC Newsline.

What’s happening?

The event took place at the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, where Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joined U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross from North Carolina. Also in attendance were the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters and Partners for Environmental Justice.

Whitehouse cited the many similarities between his home state and North Carolina, including sudden flooding from “rain bursts.”

“Those are familiar topics to you here in North Carolina — upland river flooding from rain bursts and coastal erosion and storms tearing away at your coastal communities,” Whitehouse said, per NC Newsline.

Whitehouse also spoke about how this affects insurance rates for families whose homes are deemed “too risky” by insurers.

“This is actually everywhere, and it opens a new era of a climate conversation that will give us the political power to solve the problem before it gets devastatingly worse,” he said.

Dan Crawford, senior director of public affairs at the NCLCV, revealed that North Carolina has the nation’s third-highest rate of property insurance policy cancellations, affecting more than one in 10 homeowners in some coastal areas in 2023, per NC Newsline.

“The message is clear: You can’t solve the insurance crisis without also addressing the climate crisis,” he said. “Rising risk means rising cost, and unless we take action to make our communities more resilient and reduce the pollution driving these disasters, North Carolinians will continue to pay that price.”

Why are rising insurance rates important?

As humanity generates more and more heat-trapping air pollution, Earth is getting hotter, destabilizing weather patterns and leading to extreme weather events. In response, insurance prices are rising nationwide, and companies are dropping coverage altogether for many of their clients.

When insurance rates go up, it becomes harder for homeowners to pay their bills. Some struggle financially, while others gamble by letting their coverage lapse. This can lead to losing their homes in the case of a disaster.

Meanwhile, it becomes that much more difficult to buy and sell houses, since lenders generally require insurance policies to be in place and up to date as a condition of home loans.

All of these variables put more financial strain on Americans at a time when money is already tight due to inflation.

What’s being done about rising insurance rates?

Senator Whitehouse called for the restructuring of the National Flood Insurance Program because it “isn’t sound or fair now.”

“The whole program is failing right now, and so a very significant redo is required, but transparency and consumer options are two of the key pieces to make it right,” he told NC Newsline.

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