Gyeonggi Province announced today that it will implement "climate insurance" for the first time in the country starting in March.
Climate insurance is a policy insurance aimed at minimizing health damage caused by climate factors such as heatwaves and cold waves, and at alleviating climate disparities by supporting vulnerable populations.
It will operate in an automatic enrollment manner without a separate registration process for all residents, providing fixed support for ▲ heat illness and cold illness diagnosis costs (10,000 won once a year) ▲ infectious disease diagnosis costs (100,000 won per incident) ▲ compensation for injuries related to weather warnings lasting more than four weeks (300,000 won per incident), among others.
About 160,000 individuals in climate-vulnerable groups, who are targeted by the health management program of city and county health centers, can receive additional coverage for ▲ hospitalization costs for heat illness and cold illness (limited to 100,000 won for five days) ▲ transportation costs to medical institutions during weather warnings (20,000 won) ▲ ambulance transfer costs during climate disasters (up to 500,000 won per incident) ▲ support for mental damage from climate disasters (10,000 won per occurrence).
Climate insurance will be funded with 3.4 billion won from Gyeonggi Province's own budget and related procedures for the insurance contract, including a public bidding to recruit insurance companies, will be conducted within this month.
Cha Seong-soo, director of the Gyeonggi Province Climate Environment and Energy Department, said, "Climate insurance will become an essential safety net in the era of climate crisis," adding that it "will particularly reduce the burden on residents and provide practical assistance to vulnerable groups, thus taking on a leading role as a new model for climate crisis response for other local governments."