Executive Summary
Extreme weather losses are accelerating across the United States, placing growing financial strain on the national insurance and recovery system. Insurers, governments, utilities, infrastructure managers, and households now face rising climate-driven risks that are becoming harder to absorb. This National Academies webinar examines how increasing weather extremes are reshaping risk-sharing, insurance affordability, and long-term resilience. By bringing together leading experts in climate science, infrastructure systems, and public policy, the session explores pathways toward a more sustainable and equitable approach to financing climate resilience.
Rising Financial Pressures from Extreme Weather Events
Financial losses from extreme weather events are increasing at a pace that threatens the stability of the U.S. insurance and disaster recovery system. Insurers, state agencies, federal programs, homeowners, landlords, utilities, and infrastructure operators are all absorbing portions of escalating climate risk. As storms intensify and billion-dollar disasters become more common, this distributed system of risk-sharing is becoming financially unsustainable. Despite the apparent simplicity of economic fixes, real solutions require confronting interconnected factors such as business incentives, policy constraints, household vulnerability, individual risk tolerance, and community norms around shared responsibility.
Purpose and Importance of the Webinar Series
The National Academies webinar series highlights the growing body of scientific research on extreme weather, climate risk, insurance, and economic impacts. By situating this research within today’s rapidly changing climate conditions, the series identifies gaps in understanding and opportunities for evidence-based decision-making. The discussions aim to help federal, state, and local leaders strengthen preparedness, improve resilience planning, and anticipate compounding losses that are reshaping the national risk landscape.
Focus on Infrastructure, Utilities, and Climate Adaptation
The second webinar in the series focuses specifically on infrastructure and utilities—sectors that sit at the front lines of climate exposure. Utilities operate essential networks that are increasingly vulnerable to severe storms, flooding, heat extremes, and changing environmental conditions. The session examines how utilities, insurers, and communities navigate differing incentives as they plan for climate adaptation, long-term system hardening, and cost allocation. Key issues include regulatory constraints, financing strategies, affordability challenges, and the role of public trust in shaping resilience investments.
Key Themes in Risk Management and Resilience Decision-Making
Speakers will explore central questions about how risk is priced, who bears the cost of climate impacts, and how resilience decisions are made under growing uncertainty. They will discuss the financial implications of infrastructure hardening, the challenges of underwriting extreme weather risk, and the influence of competing narratives on public and private decision-making. The conversation reinforces that climate resilience is not only a scientific or engineering challenge but also a financial, social, and governance issue that determines long-term community wellbeing.
Featured Experts and Perspectives
Michael Mastrandrea, Research Director of the Climate & Energy Policy Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, will discuss the latest climate science and policy implications. Matthew Ries, Vice President of Strategy and Performance at DC Water, will provide insights into the financial and operational pressures facing water utilities as extreme weather strains aging systems. Adie Tomer, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro and the Brookings Initiative on Climate Research and Action, will highlight how infrastructure resilience influences metropolitan economies, regional competitiveness, and long-term planning. The session will be moderated by Bilal Ayyub, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, a leading expert in infrastructure risk and resilience modeling.
Looking Ahead: Strengthening a System Under Strain
As climate extremes continue to intensify, insurance markets, utility systems, and community resilience strategies face mounting pressure. This webinar underscores the need for coordinated action and evidence-based planning to ensure the nation’s infrastructure, financial systems, and households can withstand future climate impacts. Clear, science-driven insights can help policymakers, insurers, utilities, and communities navigate rising costs and build a more resilient, adaptive risk landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How are extreme weather events affecting the U.S. insurance system? Extreme weather events are driving rapid increases in financial losses, making it harder for insurers to maintain affordable coverage and straining state and federal disaster recovery programs.
- Why are utilities and infrastructure operators central to climate risk and insurance discussions? Utilities operate essential networks that are highly vulnerable to storms, flooding, heat, and other climate hazards. Their resilience decisions directly influence service reliability, community safety, and long-term insurance costs.
- What factors make the current risk-sharing system financially unsustainable? A mix of rising climate-driven losses, outdated policy frameworks, uneven risk distribution, affordability constraints, and differing community risk perceptions is pushing the existing system beyond its capacity.
- What topics will the National Academies webinar on climate risk and insurance cover? The webinar will examine insurance affordability, resilience financing, infrastructure vulnerability, utility adaptation strategies, and the policy and scientific insights needed to strengthen long-term preparedness.
- How can communities, insurers, and utilities collaborate to improve climate resilience? Effective collaboration requires shared data, aligned incentives, resilient infrastructure investments, transparent communication of risks, and coordinated planning to distribute costs and benefits more equitably.
(Source: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (n.d.). Extreme Weather Events and Insurance Webinar Series (Project CHPP-ESR-25-P-717.)
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