The mixed blessing of shifting responsibilities
Challenges for introducing compulsory elemental insurance in Germany
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22025216 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julia Plass (0009-0003-2117-2688, University of Bayreuth, corresponding author), Jens Oliver Zinn (0000-0002-4992-9123, The University of Melbourne) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 127 |
| Pages | 105670 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2212-4209 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105670 |
| OpenAlex | W4411966502 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 53 |
For a long time, Germany was largely spared from extreme weather events such as flooding. Severe flooding occurred only sporadically and at extended intervals. However, due to climate change, adjustments to more severe and frequent flooding are necessary. This was demonstrated by the Ahr Valley floods in 2021 and the southern German floods in 2024. In response, the introduction of compulsory elemental insurance has been repeatedly discussed to strengthen household resilience. However, the perspective of the (re-)insurance industry on necessary responses to extreme weather events is still underresearched. This study contributes to overcoming this deficit through an interview study with 27 (re-)insurance experts from Germany, exploring their views on the challenges associated with implementing mandatory elemental insurance. According to the experts, three central factors – risk awareness, accessing and understanding data and information, and adaptation measures – shape household resilience and, at the same time, challenge current responsibility distributions. However, shifting responsibility to the insurance industry and households can entail counterproductive effects on household resilience. Instead, more complex approaches involving different stakeholders could be more effective
Blessing · Business · Theology · Global Health Care Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Insurance and Financial Risk Management · Philosophy
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Qualitative Text Analysis
Flood exposure and social vulnerability in the United States
Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems
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Feeling secure or being secure? Why it can seem better not to protect yourself against a natural hazard
‘In-between’ and other reasonable ways to deal with risk and uncertainty
Das Experteninterview — konzeptionelle Grundlagen und methodische Anlage
Understanding Risk-Taking
Disaster resilience
Heading into the unknown
An assessment of best practices of extreme weather insurance and directions for a more resilient society
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The meaning of risk-taking – key concepts and dimensions
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Snowball sampling
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Reinventing Prevention
Insurance as maladaptation
Social and ecological resilience
The concept of resilience revisited
It'll never happen to me
Skype interviewing
Risk-taking and social inequality
Resilient subjects
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |