Catastrophic wildfires and other disasters fueled by climate change are raising serious doubts about the future of insurance. But a former California insurance commissioner has some ideas about what could be done.

Dave Jones is now the director of the UC Berkeley School of Law鈥檚 Climate Risk Initiative, but he served as commissioner from 2011 to 2018, when some of California鈥檚 most devastating wildfires took place. Over the last year, California have paused issuing new homeowner policies.

鈥淐limate change is causing more frequent and severe weather-related events,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭hose in turn are killing people, injuring people, destroying property and causing major insurance losses.

鈥淎nd in certain parts of the United States, based on how climate change is landing, I believe that we are marching steadily towards an uninsurable future, because the risk of loss and the magnitude of loss is growing so much that insurers can't cover those properties and still make a reasonable profit.鈥�

Due to insufficient action to combat climate change, he said much of the West faces that prospect.

However, there are things that can be done. Most important, he said, is reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In a 2021 , he and his coauthors also found that it was possible for insurance models to take prescribed fires and other wildfire mitigation efforts into account, which could ultimately lower prices.

鈥淭he bad news is that so far鈥he insurers have not taken this up into their models, and it鈥檚 very frustrating,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淎nd it's frustrating for those communities and taxpayers that are paying for forest treatment.鈥�

He added, 鈥淏ecause the insurance carriers are not taking it up voluntarily, I think state governments are going to have to say, 鈥楲ook, this needs to happen.鈥欌€�

This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau is provided in part by the .