With the forthcoming EU Methane Strategy and a flurry of other energy proposals expected in the coming months, Europe has an incredible opportunity to lead — not just domestically but internationally — when it comes to reducing oil and gas methane emissions. This is the single most effective thing we can do to limit temperature […]

With the forthcoming EU Methane Strategy and a flurry of other energy proposals expected in the coming months, Europe has an incredible opportunity to lead — not just domestically but internationally — when it comes to reducing oil and gas methane emissions. This is the single most effective thing we can do to limit temperature […]

The post Harnessing Europe’s climate diplomacy and energy policy to drive down methane worldwide appeared first on Energy Exchange.

With the forthcoming EU Methane Strategy and a flurry of other energy proposals expected in the coming months, Europe has an incredible opportunity to lead — not just domestically but internationally — when it comes to reducing oil and gas methane emissions. This is the single most effective thing we can do to limit temperature […]

With the forthcoming EU Methane Strategy and a flurry of other energy proposals expected in the coming months, Europe has an incredible opportunity to lead — not just domestically but internationally — when it comes to reducing oil and gas methane emissions. This is the single most effective thing we can do to limit temperature […]

As part of its ambitious goal announced today to achieve zero-carbon operations by 2040, Walmart outlined a notable timeframe for transforming its truck fleet. The company will accelerate efforts to pilot zero-emission trucks over the next few years and then aggressively ramp up its use of these vehicles, in order to achieve a full fleet […]

Morgan Stanley is the first major U.S. bank to pledge to net zero financed emissions by 2050, but it won’t be the last.

A new warning bell for Wall Street, as wildfires rage out West

Climate change has forced its way into the headlines in the past week, as record-setting wildfires rage on the U.S. West Coast, burning millions of acres, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate and blanketing the region in smoke that has now reached all the way across the continent. Even as Louisiana was still reeling from Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Sally made landfall on the Alabama-Florida border this week, delivering a deluge of "historic" rainfall as it moved onshore. At present, up to 30 inches have already fallen in several areas, with combined surge and rainfall causing flooding across the Eastern Gulf Coast and moving inland.

So it seems particularly timely that a federal advisory committee to the a key U.S. financial regulator released a report last week outlining the impact climate change could have on the country’s financial system. The message to Wall Street and financial regulators is stark: climate change poses serious risks that, if ignored, will undermine the financial system’s ability to support the American economy.

This new report, Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, is the first of its kind to be released under the auspices of a U.S. financial regulator. It was written and unanimously approved by 34 experts representing banks, asset managers, agribusiness, the oil and gas sector, academia and environmental organizations. (I was one of the authors.)

What makes the report particularly newsworthy is that it connects the dots between climate change and the risk to the financial system.

Other reports have clearly documented the economic damages from climate change. The science has improved tremendously over the past decade, to the point where we can clearly link severe weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and drought to a warming planet. Just two weeks ago, for example, Datu published a report commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund that calculated $1.75 trillion in damages from severe weather events since the 1980s. But how do we know those economic damages translate into risk to financial institutions?

The new CFTC report provides the answer.

Climate change is dumping record amounts of rain What’s in the report

One of the most powerful sections of the report describes how financial losses from storms, floods, rising sea level and wildfires can undermine core components of the financial system. For example, climate disasters could cause prolonged disruptions to critical operations of financial market utilities that could "paralyze" the markets they serve. The report cites 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, which flooded a bank vault and damaged or destroyed 1.7 million stock and bond certificates. The company couldn’t even assess the damage for two weeks until pumps could clear the vault of water.

There’s also a sobering list of assets that bear the greatest climate risk, including mortgage-backed securities, REITs, utility debt, insurance equities and bonds. The list of industries at greatest risk reads like a synopsis of the American economy: agriculture, airlines, automobile manufacturers, hospitality, power generation, and concrete and steel. Financial advisors, state pension managers and anyone who actively manages their own retirement portfolio should print Table 3.1 and pin it next to their computer screen.

At the macro — or "systemic" — level, the report discusses how climate impacts could conceivably contribute to a financial crisis by propagating throughout the economy and undermining the value of financial assets, as previously hidden risks are suddenly taken into account.

Perhaps more important, however, is the report’s careful look at what it calls "sub-systemic" shocks. After all, the U.S. is a large and diversified economy, which also makes it resilient. But as the report points out, smaller financial institutions are also at risk: community banks in hurricane-prone areas that hold commercial real estate mortgages, for example, or agricultural credit institutions that would be hard hit by drought.

In other words, this isn’t just about big banks on Wall Street: this is about everyday transactions on Main Street: the home mortgages, commercial real estate loans, farm credit and small business loans that underpin the U.S. economy — and that depend on a stable financial system.

What our economists say about the costs of climate change What we don’t know

How likely are those risks? The scary answer is: We don’t know. The report shows a range of scenarios for how climate change could threaten the U.S. financial system, but we don’t know when or how those scenarios could occur — because we are not requiring businesses and financial institutions to assess, measure, manage and disclose those risks.

New research from the Brookings Institution, aptly titled “Flying Blind,” makes the same point: investors don’t know the actual climate risks to their portfolios. Members of the financial community who ignore climate change — whether they are banks, investors or regulators — do so at their own peril.

That’s precisely why measuring and managing climate risk should be an essential part of the actions regulators take to protect the financial system. The report calls on Congress and regulators to take concrete steps to manage that risk, ranging from a price on carbon to including incorporating climate risk into corporate risk management and taking steps to ensure better data availability and climate risk scenarios.

Two recommendations stand out in particular:

• First, regulators should require companies to more fully and transparently disclose climate risks. EDF was instrumental in getting the Securities and Exchange Commission to publish guidance on climate risk disclosure a decade ago. But as the report makes clear, too many companies are effectively ignoring that guidance. Regulators should beef up those requirements, making it clear that climate risks amount to material risks that firms are required to disclose — and ensure that they comply.
• Second, the report calls on regulators to make clear that managers of retirement and pension plans are entirely right to take climate risk into account alongside "traditional" financial factors. That’s critical, since only a few weeks ago the Trump administration issued a proposed regulation that would prohibit retirement and pension plans from considering climate risk — despite overwhelming opposition from the investment community.

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that climate change poses risks to human health and the economy. This report is a warning that climate change also threatens the fluid and stable performance of our financial system. As we transition toward a more responsible and sustainable net-zero emission economy, we must also be aware of and manage for the real risks that two centuries of unchecked climate emissions have created.

Register here for a keynote address by Commissioner Rostin Behnam of Commodity Futures Trading Commission during Climate Week NYC 2020. The Commissioner will share key findings from the recent report: Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System.

tmoran September 18, 2020 - 12:59

A new warning bell for Wall Street, as wildfires rage out West

Climate change has forced its way into the headlines in the past week, as record-setting wildfires rage on the U.S. West Coast, burning millions of acres, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate and blanketing the region in smoke that has now reached all the way across the continent. Even as Louisiana was still reeling from Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Sally made landfall on the Alabama-Florida border this week, delivering a deluge of "historic" rainfall as it moved onshore. At present, up to 30 inches have already fallen in several areas, with combined surge and rainfall causing flooding across the Eastern Gulf Coast and moving inland.

So it seems particularly timely that a federal advisory committee to the a key U.S. financial regulator released a report last week outlining the impact climate change could have on the country’s financial system. The message to Wall Street and financial regulators is stark: climate change poses serious risks that, if ignored, will undermine the financial system’s ability to support the American economy.

This new report, Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, is the first of its kind to be released under the auspices of a U.S. financial regulator. It was written and unanimously approved by 34 experts representing banks, asset managers, agribusiness, the oil and gas sector, academia and environmental organizations. (I was one of the authors.)

What makes the report particularly newsworthy is that it connects the dots between climate change and the risk to the financial system.

Other reports have clearly documented the economic damages from climate change. The science has improved tremendously over the past decade, to the point where we can clearly link severe weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and drought to a warming planet. Just two weeks ago, for example, Datu published a report commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund that calculated $1.75 trillion in damages from severe weather events since the 1980s. But how do we know those economic damages translate into risk to financial institutions?

The new CFTC report provides the answer.

Climate change is dumping record amounts of rain What’s in the report

One of the most powerful sections of the report describes how financial losses from storms, floods, rising sea level and wildfires can undermine core components of the financial system. For example, climate disasters could cause prolonged disruptions to critical operations of financial market utilities that could "paralyze" the markets they serve. The report cites 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, which flooded a bank vault and damaged or destroyed 1.7 million stock and bond certificates. The company couldn’t even assess the damage for two weeks until pumps could clear the vault of water.

There’s also a sobering list of assets that bear the greatest climate risk, including mortgage-backed securities, REITs, utility debt, insurance equities and bonds. The list of industries at greatest risk reads like a synopsis of the American economy: agriculture, airlines, automobile manufacturers, hospitality, power generation, and concrete and steel. Financial advisors, state pension managers and anyone who actively manages their own retirement portfolio should print Table 3.1 and pin it next to their computer screen.

At the macro — or "systemic" — level, the report discusses how climate impacts could conceivably contribute to a financial crisis by propagating throughout the economy and undermining the value of financial assets, as previously hidden risks are suddenly taken into account.

Perhaps more important, however, is the report’s careful look at what it calls "sub-systemic" shocks. After all, the U.S. is a large and diversified economy, which also makes it resilient. But as the report points out, smaller financial institutions are also at risk: community banks in hurricane-prone areas that hold commercial real estate mortgages, for example, or agricultural credit institutions that would be hard hit by drought.

In other words, this isn’t just about big banks on Wall Street: this is about everyday transactions on Main Street: the home mortgages, commercial real estate loans, farm credit and small business loans that underpin the U.S. economy — and that depend on a stable financial system.

What our economists say about the costs of climate change What we don’t know

How likely are those risks? The scary answer is: We don’t know. The report shows a range of scenarios for how climate change could threaten the U.S. financial system, but we don’t know when or how those scenarios could occur — because we are not requiring businesses and financial institutions to assess, measure, manage and disclose those risks.

New research from the Brookings Institution, aptly titled “Flying Blind,” makes the same point: investors don’t know the actual climate risks to their portfolios. Members of the financial community who ignore climate change — whether they are banks, investors or regulators — do so at their own peril.

That’s precisely why measuring and managing climate risk should be an essential part of the actions regulators take to protect the financial system. The report calls on Congress and regulators to take concrete steps to manage that risk, ranging from a price on carbon to including incorporating climate risk into corporate risk management and taking steps to ensure better data availability and climate risk scenarios.

Two recommendations stand out in particular:

• First, regulators should require companies to more fully and transparently disclose climate risks. EDF was instrumental in getting the Securities and Exchange Commission to publish guidance on climate risk disclosure a decade ago. But as the report makes clear, too many companies are effectively ignoring that guidance. Regulators should beef up those requirements, making it clear that climate risks amount to material risks that firms are required to disclose — and ensure that they comply.
• Second, the report calls on regulators to make clear that managers of retirement and pension plans are entirely right to take climate risk into account alongside "traditional" financial factors. That’s critical, since only a few weeks ago the Trump administration issued a proposed regulation that would prohibit retirement and pension plans from considering climate risk — despite overwhelming opposition from the investment community.

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that climate change poses risks to human health and the economy. This report is a warning that climate change also threatens the fluid and stable performance of our financial system. As we transition toward a more responsible and sustainable net-zero emission economy, we must also be aware of and manage for the real risks that two centuries of unchecked climate emissions have created.

Register here for a keynote address by Commissioner Rostin Behnam of Commodity Futures Trading Commission during Climate Week NYC 2020. The Commissioner will share key findings from the recent report: Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System.

tmoran September 18, 2020 - 12:59

Climate change is dumping record amounts of rain. We’re not equipped to handle it.

Hurricane Sally made landfall on the Alabama-Florida border this week, delivering a deluge of ‘historic’ rainfall as it moved onshore. At present up to 30 inches have already fallen in several areas, with combined surge and rainfall causing flooding across the Eastern Gulf Coast and moving inland.

While storm surge from hurricanes is often a significant cause of devastating flooding, intense rainfall is increasing those risks, including for communities far beyond the coast. Scientists have found that hurricanes are moving more slowly, which leads to more rain dumped over one area. At the same time, climate change is increasing moisture in the atmosphere, creating greater downpours during hurricanes, thunderstorms and other heavy rain events. In the southeastern U.S., there is around 30% more rain falling today during heavy downpours than in the late 1950s, and the number of 2-day heavy rainfall events has increased by around 60% since the early 1900s.

According to a new Datu Research report commissioned by EDF, the cost of billion-dollar weather disasters, including hurricanes and floods, has quadrupled since 1980. And a recent analysis by First Street Foundation found that more properties in the U.S., approximately 14.6 million, are at risk of flooding than ever before.

As climate change drives more intense hurricanes and increases rainfall, we need bold action today on the climate crisis and to build greater resilience to protect people and property from the effects of extreme weather.

Climate Week 2020: a critical period for climate action Hurricanes deliver historic rainfall and damages

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused $130 billion in damages, inundating Houston and communities across southeastern Texas with a record-breaking 70 inches of rain. Scientists note that this intense rainfall was worsened by climate change, finding “human-caused climate change made record rainfall over Houston around three times more likely to occur and 15 to 38 percent more intense.”

North Carolina has also experienced more than its fair share of disasters, having been hit by 20 separate, billion-dollar hurricanes since 1980. Most recently, Hurricanes Matthew and Florence delivered a one-two punch to the state that extended far beyond the coastline. Extreme rainfall from the storms caused water to flow downriver destroying homes, livelihoods and communities.

Disasters like Harvey, Matthew and Florence almost always hit low-income areas and communities of color hardest, compounding existing social, racial and political inequities. These storms are an urgent call to action to build greater equity and resilience before disaster strikes.

Heavy downpours are also an increasing threat

It’s not just hurricanes that deliver excessive rainfall and cause massive flooding — non-tropical thunderstorms and other heavy rain events do as well.

Our nation’s systems for draining and managing water are antiquated and ill-equipped to handle the new normal of these climate-driven, super-soaker rain events. Streams, rivers and creeks quickly reach capacity, overtopping their banks and flooding communities and businesses that were never previously flooded.

The Midwest has experienced several years of back-to-back floods that have devastated communities and crops. In 2019, floods inundated millions of acres of agricultural lands, causing $10.8 billion in direct damage and making it one of the costliest U.S. inland floods on record.

As the water flows downstream, it poses a grave threat to places like New Orleans. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has operated the Bonnet Carré Spillway — a structure built after the Great Flood of 1927 to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees — an unprecedented five times in the last five years. That includes for the first time doing so twice in back-to-back years and twice in the same year. What the Army Corps of Engineers designed as an occasional relief valve, climate change has made a near-annual necessity to protect 1 million people in Louisiana from these floods.

Tell Congress to build a safer, healthier and cleaner future How can we handle all this water better?

We must act proactively and make investments that build greater resilience to extreme weather before disaster strikes, as every dollar invested before a disaster saves the country $6 dollars in recovery.

To build resilience and rebuild better, we must prioritize natural infrastructure for its ability to absorb water and limit flooding from riverine to coastal communities. In response to recent hurricanes, North Carolina enacted legislation that helps the private sector to move these projects forward more efficiently, to limit flooding to communities and farmlands. Louisiana is advancing diversion projects upriver from New Orleans that would take water off the Mississippi River, limiting use of the Bonnet Carré Spillway while also restoring vital wetlands. In the Midwest, farmers are using innovative techniques to limit runoff and better protect crops from the shocks of extreme weather.

Through all of this, the most vulnerable communities must remain a priority for action, particularly before disaster strikes. Since Harvey, EDF has worked with partners in Texas to develop an innovative database that has compiled the needs of more than 25,000 residents in order to mobilize action and advance policies that help communities with disasters ranging from hurricanes to air pollution to COVID-19. We still need to do more.

An urgent call for climate action and resilience

The sad irony is that while Sally dumps damaging amounts of rain on the eastern part of the country, drought-fueled wildfires ravage the western U.S. These inverse extremes represent the reality of climate change in our country and should mobilize us all to act on climate now.

That means moving the U.S. to a 100% clean economy no later than 2050. It also means making large-scale investments to adapt to the extreme weather already occurring. The cost of inaction is too great to bear any longer.

tmoran September 17, 2020 - 04:39

Climate change is dumping record amounts of rain. We’re not equipped to handle it.

Hurricane Sally made landfall on the Alabama-Florida border this week, delivering a deluge of ‘historic’ rainfall as it moved onshore. At present up to 30 inches have already fallen in several areas, with combined surge and rainfall causing flooding across the Eastern Gulf Coast and moving inland.

While storm surge from hurricanes is often a significant cause of devastating flooding, intense rainfall is increasing those risks, including for communities far beyond the coast. Scientists have found that hurricanes are moving more slowly, which leads to more rain dumped over one area. At the same time, climate change is increasing moisture in the atmosphere, creating greater downpours during hurricanes, thunderstorms and other heavy rain events. In the southeastern U.S., there is around 30% more rain falling today during heavy downpours than in the late 1950s, and the number of 2-day heavy rainfall events has increased by around 60% since the early 1900s.

According to a new Datu Research report commissioned by EDF, the cost of billion-dollar weather disasters, including hurricanes and floods, has quadrupled since 1980. And a recent analysis by First Street Foundation found that more properties in the U.S., approximately 14.6 million, are at risk of flooding than ever before.

As climate change drives more intense hurricanes and increases rainfall, we need bold action today on the climate crisis and to build greater resilience to protect people and property from the effects of extreme weather.

Climate Week 2020: a critical period for climate action Hurricanes deliver historic rainfall and damages

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused $130 billion in damages, inundating Houston and communities across southeastern Texas with a record-breaking 70 inches of rain. Scientists note that this intense rainfall was worsened by climate change, finding “human-caused climate change made record rainfall over Houston around three times more likely to occur and 15 to 38 percent more intense.”

North Carolina has also experienced more than its fair share of disasters, having been hit by 20 separate, billion-dollar hurricanes since 1980. Most recently, Hurricanes Matthew and Florence delivered a one-two punch to the state that extended far beyond the coastline. Extreme rainfall from the storms caused water to flow downriver destroying homes, livelihoods and communities.

Disasters like Harvey, Matthew and Florence almost always hit low-income areas and communities of color hardest, compounding existing social, racial and political inequities. These storms are an urgent call to action to build greater equity and resilience before disaster strikes.

Heavy downpours are also an increasing threat

It’s not just hurricanes that deliver excessive rainfall and cause massive flooding — non-tropical thunderstorms and other heavy rain events do as well.

Our nation’s systems for draining and managing water are antiquated and ill-equipped to handle the new normal of these climate-driven, super-soaker rain events. Streams, rivers and creeks quickly reach capacity, overtopping their banks and flooding communities and businesses that were never previously flooded.

The Midwest has experienced several years of back-to-back floods that have devastated communities and crops. In 2019, floods inundated millions of acres of agricultural lands, causing $10.8 billion in direct damage and making it one of the costliest U.S. inland floods on record.

As the water flows downstream, it poses a grave threat to places like New Orleans. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has operated the Bonnet Carré Spillway — a structure built after the Great Flood of 1927 to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees — an unprecedented five times in the last five years. That includes for the first time doing so twice in back-to-back years and twice in the same year. What the Army Corps of Engineers designed as an occasional relief valve, climate change has made a near-annual necessity to protect 1 million people in Louisiana from these floods.

Tell Congress to build a safer, healthier and cleaner future How can we handle all this water better?

We must act proactively and make investments that build greater resilience to extreme weather before disaster strikes, as every dollar invested before a disaster saves the country $6 dollars in recovery.

To build resilience and rebuild better, we must prioritize natural infrastructure for its ability to absorb water and limit flooding from riverine to coastal communities. In response to recent hurricanes, North Carolina enacted legislation that helps the private sector to move these projects forward more efficiently, to limit flooding to communities and farmlands. Louisiana is advancing diversion projects upriver from New Orleans that would take water off the Mississippi River, limiting use of the Bonnet Carré Spillway while also restoring vital wetlands. In the Midwest, farmers are using innovative techniques to limit runoff and better protect crops from the shocks of extreme weather.

Through all of this, the most vulnerable communities must remain a priority for action, particularly before disaster strikes. Since Harvey, EDF has worked with partners in Texas to develop an innovative database that has compiled the needs of more than 25,000 residents in order to mobilize action and advance policies that help communities with disasters ranging from hurricanes to air pollution to COVID-19. We still need to do more.

An urgent call for climate action and resilience

The sad irony is that while Sally dumps damaging amounts of rain on the eastern part of the country, drought-fueled wildfires ravage the western U.S. These inverse extremes represent the reality of climate change in our country and should mobilize us all to act on climate now.

That means moving the U.S. to a 100% clean economy no later than 2050. It also means making large-scale investments to adapt to the extreme weather already occurring. The cost of inaction is too great to bear any longer.

tmoran September 17, 2020 - 04:39

The Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), National Audubon Society, and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) are proud to release a virtual tour highlighting how a healthy coast is integral to a healthy community. Told through local voices, the tour examines key areas and infrastructure surrounding the Lower 9th Ward that provide protection from damaging winds and water driven by tropical storms and hurricanes. This video is one effort in a series aimed at ...

Read The Full Story

The post Virtual Tour Highlights Importance of Wetlands for Coastal Cities appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

The Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), National Audubon Society, and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) are proud to release a virtual tour highlighting how a healthy coast is integral to a healthy community. Told through local voices, the tour examines key areas and infrastructure surrounding the Lower 9th Ward that provide protection from damaging winds and water driven by tropical storms and hurricanes. This video is one effort in a series aimed at ...

Read The Full Story

The post Virtual Tour Highlights Importance of Wetlands for Coastal Cities appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

There’s never been a more pressing need to set political theater aside and address our fire problems to create a healthier, more resilient future.

The post Why does the West keep burning? Here are 3 key factors. first appeared on Growing Returns.

There’s never been a more pressing need to set political theater aside and address our fire problems to create a healthier, more resilient future.

Esta publicación fue corredactada por Bärbel Henneberger. English version. Los Pueblos Indígenas que habitan en la Amazonía son conocidos como “guardianes de los bosques” debido a su eficacia para mantenerlos intactos. Los territorios indígenas y las áreas protegidas conjuntamente cubren el 52% de la Amazonía y almacenan el 58% del carbono, superando así a las […]

Esta publicación fue corredactada por Bärbel Henneberger. English version. Los Pueblos Indígenas que habitan en la Amazonía son conocidos como “guardianes de los bosques” debido a su eficacia para mantenerlos intactos. Los territorios indígenas y las áreas protegidas conjuntamente cubren el 52% de la Amazonía y almacenan el 58% del carbono, superando así a las […]

This second report in a joint research series by Environmental Defense Fund and Resources for the Future examines U.S. federal environmental remediation and infrastructure policies that can create jobs and restore communities that have been historically reliant on fossil fuels. Daniel Raimi of RFF authored the report described in this blog post. All views expressed […]

The post Environmental remediation and infrastructure policies offer crucial opportunities for fossil fuel communities in transition appeared first on Climate 411.

This second report in a joint research series by Environmental Defense Fund and Resources for the Future examines U.S. federal environmental remediation and infrastructure policies that can create jobs and restore communities that have been historically reliant on fossil fuels. Daniel Raimi of RFF authored the report described in this blog post. All views expressed […]

En español Last month marked a major victory in Puerto Rico’s pursuit of a reliable and sustainable energy system, as the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau issued its resolution on the long-term plans laid out by the Electric Power Authority. Thanks to the long-standing engagement of local communities and vigorous advocacy from an array of organizations […]