Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer

[u/RunAmbitious2593]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/03/climate-crisis-on-track-to-destroy-capitalism-warns-allianz-insurer

The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.

Global carbon emissions are still rising and current policies will result in a rise in global temperature between 2.2C and 3.4C above pre-industrial levels. The damage at 3C will be so great that governments will be unable to provide financial bailouts and it will be impossible to adapt to many climate impacts, said Thallinger, who is also the chair of the German company’s investment board and was previously CEO of Allianz Investment Management...

...Thallinger said it was a systemic risk “threatening the very foundation of the financial sector”, because a lack of insurance means other financial services become unavailable: “This is a climate-induced credit crunch.”

“This applies not only to housing, but to infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, and industry,” he said. “The economic value of entire regions – coastal, arid, wildfire-prone – will begin to vanish from financial ledgers. Markets will reprice, rapidly and brutally. This is what a climate-driven market failure looks like.”

[u/Icy_Drive_7433]

But if there is no economic system, how are you going to pay your armies? And even if they end up with such armies, it wouldn't be long before someone decided that his "boss" is weak and so he'll have it instead.

There's no escape.

[u/Meet_Foot → u/Icy_Drive_7433]

With food, water, and usable land.

You could say the same now regarding usurpation. But there are lots of ways to keep a hired gun happy. It could turn on you, but doesn’t necessarily do so.

[u/Icy_Drive_7433 → u/Meet_Foot]

Yes it could and doesn't have to. But I suspect that in such environments it's more likely than not.

And if you have a private army, you have competition, probably not just from people who aren't in your army, such as the population.

If they have nothing, why support you? If there are no ways to grow crops due to extreme weather conditions, where is the food coming from?

[u/Meet_Foot → u/Icy_Drive_7433]

Again, they are currently hoarding all the wealth. They’ll be able to buy up all the water and store it, and non-perishable food, and whatever useable land is left. They have literally all the money and power in the world to prepare right now.

[u/Icy_Drive_7433 → u/Meet_Foot]

But that wealth is in the form of assets and if it's cash, they're promissory notes which only have the inherent value of the state bank with which it's associated.

After the collapse of the banking system the money means nothing. They can't buy or sell anything if the currency is not recognised as having value.

The only thing that would have some value would be something like gold, but even that wouldn't have real value besides what people agreed it was worth in exchange for a given item (which is why the GBP is a 'pound', as it was worth a pound of silver).

And yes they could but it up, now, but they haven't bought it and can only store a certain amount of things for a limited time.

And all the infrastructure they'd rely on would require maintenance, so unless they can do it themselves, they're going to have pay people to do that with a currency that no longer has any value.

I guess we're going to disagree on this, so that's all I have to say.