Climate Risk Insurance Gains Momentum on Paris Sidelines

How to use an all-too-familiar tool long used by homeowners and car owners—insurance—to better shield populations in countries vulnerable to climate change impacts got an unexpected moment in the sun at the Paris climate summit this week.

President Barack Obama’s meeting with representatives from small island nations yielded a U.S. pledge of $30 million to support what is still a fledgling effort to use insurance to protect vulnerable populations from Pacific nations to Central America and Africa.

The funding will support or expand insurance initiatives under three regional efforts: the Pacific Catastrophic Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative, Caribbean Catastrophic Risk ...