WASHINGTON — The cost of federal flood insurance will need to increase significantly in much of the country to meet the growing risks of climate change, new data suggests, creating a political headache for the Biden administration. The National Flood Insurance Program, which provides the vast majority of United States flood insurance policies, would have to quadruple premiums on high-risk homes inside floodplains to reflect the risks they already face, according to data issued on Monday by the First Street Foundation, a group of academics and experts that models flood risks. By 2050, First Street projected, increased flooding tied to climate change will require a sevenfold increase. The new data could point to higher flood insurance costs this year for homes at risk. On April 1, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the flood program, is set to announce new premiums, using modern flood-modeling techniques that more closely reflect the actual risks facing individual properties — the same approach that First Street said it had used in its calculations.

Source: New York Times February 22, 2021 04:52 UTC