envscisociety

It is likely that the most vulnerable are least likely to be insured, or be able to pay an extortionate premium to be covered. Much like how private health insurers in the US refuse to insure those at high risk of cancer, the investors in catbonds are less likely to be able to provide coverage for those least developed countries most at risk of climate chaos, such as Bangladesh. Indeed, there are certain to be “uninsurable” regions, just as there are millions of Americans without health coverage. Rather than modelling climate insurance on a Scandinavian or Canadian socialised system, ensuring that everyone is equally covered, the catbond market replicates the broken healthcare system of the USA with its storied injustices. Here, due to increased premiums paid to already wealthy northern investors by southern governments least able to pay, there is a transfer of wealth not from north to south, but from south to north – a situation Swedish scholars have described as “particularly odious”.