NOAA’s Move to End Climate Disaster Database Threatens to Drive Up Insurance Costs
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s recent decision to stop updating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database would threaten to drive up insurance costs for consumers already struggling to afford rising premiums, according to a letter signed by 40 environmental and consumer protection organizations sent to Derek Arndt, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information today.
The letter, signed by Public Citizen, National Resource Defense Council, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, called on NOAA to maintain its database of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters and increase access to climate data essential to support resilience and adaptation planning by the public and private sector.
“The billion-dollar disaster tracking database provided by NOAA is irreplaceable,” said Mekedas Belayneh, policy advocate with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. “The decision to cut this tool comes at a moment when we still have yet to fully account for the damages from the devastating fires in Los Angeles or flooding across the South and Midwest. There is no way to hide the cost of climate change. Homeowners and consumers are already footing the bill, paying higher insurance premiums and facing the financial costs of climate disasters. As the Trump administration cuts public climate data, homeowners and communities will be left in the dark, unable to track, respond, and prepare for disasters. The private sector will not fill this information gap with accurate, accessible climate data. It will be kept behind paywalls, if it is rebuilt at all.”
In May, NOAA announced the move to end the tracking of costs of climate-driven disasters. As part of the move, a disclaimer at the top of the website run by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, stating the site will no longer be updated in “alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.”
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