"the answer is not to ignore the issue altogether, as home sellers, agents and brokers would apparently like us to do. The optimal solution would be for FEMA to -at long last- update its own flood maps, which are publicly available but have vastly underestimated the real risks for years."

Today, @madisoncondon.bsky.social makes the case that we should stop thinking of climate change as an externality. The latest in our series on @alybatt.bsky.social's *Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature.*

"The first climate lawsuit to focus on insurance costs": Two Washington state residents are suing the fossil fuel industry for contributing to climate change, arguing that a spike in natural disasters has led to rising homeowner insurance premiums. www.eenews.net/articles/law...

In the latest edition of The Dispatch: 🌳 Forest loss could trigger shocks worse than 2008 🏦 Researchers propose G-SINS: systemically important natural systems 🌍 COP30 recap, G20 dollar reform push 🌦️ Africa’s climate insurance gap widens Subscribe:

Over one-half of institutional investors say climate resilience is a “core part” of their risk-return analyses of potential investments in infrastructure and real estate, a survey of over 900 firms by Morgan Stanley shows www.morganstanley.com/insights/art...

New @nber.org paper ponders "who bears the burden of climate inaction": "Although we consider only a subset of climate costs over recent decades, we find an aggregate annual cost averaging $400-900 per household; in 10 percent of counties, costs exceed $1,300 per household" (1/2)

Climate Change Is Already Costing U.S. Households Up to $900 Per Year A new working paper from a trio of eminent economists tallies the effects of warming — particularly extreme weather — on Americans’ budgets heatmap.news/economy/clim...

Zillow deletes climate risk data from listings after complaints it harms sales => many buyers will be “flying blind” in an era when worsening impacts of extreme weather are warping the real estate market in the US www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Climate Adaptation: The Smart Investment Many Companies Aren’t Making Investors want proof of climate readiness: How are you preparing for rising seas, hotter summers and stressed grids? Companies without firm answers risk losing access to capital... www.forbes.com/councils/for...

Efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the climate emergency continued in Washington state this week as homeowners sued oil giants and a trade association over their decades of lies and rising insurance premium rates. www.commondreams.org/news/insuran...

"Climate breakdown can be seen in the data": Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Experts predict that extreme weather in Spain has already resulted in €12.2 billion worth of losses in 2025, and that will increase to €34.8 billion by 2029" ⚠️ This estimate covers ONLY drought, flooding and heat, ONLY over June-August 2025... (1/2) www.euronews.com/green/2025/1...

I remember long debates on whether "Climate Shock" as book title would come across as catastrophizing. 10 years later, it's an above-the-fold NYT headline.

New study shows "Almost half of climate journalists surveyed showed “moderate to severe” symptoms of anxiety" Note to editors: "Organizational support for mental health difficulties was absent or rated poorly"... via @carbonbrief.org psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

Stellar reporting by @carbonbrief.org on what really happened with that 'roadmap' away from fossil fuels at COP30: www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-lea...

"National Emergency Briefing": A host of eminent scientists have warned 1000 UK politicians, business and community leaders that the country is exposed to severe climate-related risks to its economy, public health, food systems and national security. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Canada’s prime minister and Alberta’s premier sign pipeline deal that could reverse oil tanker ban "The agreement will lead to more than 1 million barrels per day" This means the annual emissions from this dodgy deal will inflict over USD 48 bn in societal damages globally

🌊 Dutch central bank sounds alarm: floods pose major threat to Netherlands’ financial system. Physical risk is rising. More insights →

Finance ministers need to adapt to the growing threats from climate change, and could learn from the climate scenarios of central banks, former @bis.org head Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva told @greencb.bsky.social. greencb.co/4p2vRiZ

Climate change is driving 40% of UK food price hikes. Protecting households from spiralling costs of living means protecting the planet. It's time to kick the expensive fossil fuel habit and accelerate the shift towards heating & powering Britain with efficient renewables. @nebriefing.bsky.social

"Banks need to further strengthen their management of climate and nature-related risks, given the growing frequency of natural disasters and slow progress towards the net-zero goals", warns the @ecb.europa.eu If your assets aren't hit by transition risk, they will be by physical risk...

Another great read from @scrawford.bsky.social: "We can’t rely on the insurance industry to be the only risk-signaler for homes. These companies may be tracking hurricanes and wildfires, and translating those risks into higher premiums, but they are likely to exclude saltwater intrusion coverage."

Interesting take on the increasing everyday perils of climate change, including saltwater intrusion in coastal areas. How much less will your home be worth if you or your local water utility cannot provide drinkable water? If not saltwater intrusion, falling groundwater levels from overconsumption?

The total annual economic burden of flooding in the US totals $180 bn to $496 bn when factoring in a broader spectrum of impacts, such as annual loss in tax revenue, increases in insurance premiums, damage to ecosystems, damage to transit infrastructure www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

The consequences of climate change such as last year's deadly floods "increasingly threaten" the growth of Spain's economy, one of the developed world's most dynamic, @oecd-ocde.bsky.social warned on Wednesday. www.barrons.com/news/climate...

New study in @agu.org's Earth's Future: Drought and Extreme Heat Reduce Wheat and Maize Production in the US by Lowering Both Crop Yields and Harvestable Fraction Projections for 2021–2100 indicate even steeper declines in yield, HF and production... agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

While Trump guts climate science, in the UAE, the National Centre of Meteorology and Khalifa University are working on climate impacts... and they found that the "greatest con job" is also "making stormy days in the UAE more common and more intense"... www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/202...

Outer Banks Homes Collapsing Is Just a Taste of What’s to Come Nearly 3 million homes in places like Charleston, Miami and New York are at risk of being flooded permanently because of sea-level rise at some point in roughly the next century... www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The EU is launching a service to measure the role climate change is playing in extreme weather events, and experts say this could help governments set climate policy, improve financial risk assessments and provide evidence for use in lawsuits. japantoday.com/category/fea...

Vietnam has been pounded by a series of deadly disasters and historic floods this year that have racked up at least $3 billion in losses and exposed the nation’s flimsy climate defenses www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander is urging three of the city’s pension funds to drop BlackRock Inc. because of “inadequate” climate plans, the latest move to penalize investment firms for failing to tackle global warming. “Climate risk is financial risk" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

"Because of increasing insurance costs, what a homeowner might have thought was a fixed 30-year mortgage on a house that increases in value is turning into an adjustable-rate obligation covering an asset that might not find a buyer at the price the homeowner believes is fair" @scrawford.bsky.social

"public outcry mounts over the government’s response to a crisis that has hit about 2M people &left an entire southern city under water... SE Asia is increasingly prone to floods...leading to disasters that are costing billions of dollars more each year in damage to roads, bridges, homes &farmland"

Finance ministers can learn from central bank climate scenarios, says former BIS head A new cooperation between central banks and finance ministers on #climaterisk was announced on the outskirts of Cop30 in Brazil greencentralbanking.com/2025/11/25/f...

New York’s Next Superstorm In this example, a Category 1 hurricane would make landfall in New Jersey at high tide like Sandy, amid rainfall of four inches per hour Property damage across the city could exceed $20 billion, twice as much as Sandy caused www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Homeowners Insurance Could Surge Another 16% by 2027 Rising premiums are driven by the frequency and magnitude of natural disaster, and the increasing number of homes exposed "12% of the residential housing stock is at high-risk" www.realtor.com/advice/finan...

Home Prices on a Warming Planet "chaos in the insurance market is starting to eat into the real estate market in some places, a scenario that experts have dreaded for years"... www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/c...

Homeowners in the US South are increasingly buying property insurance from an obscure type of insurer that some experts and officials say might lack the money to pay all claims after a highly destructive storm... what could go wrong? www.eenews.net/articles/an-...

"Some people argue that focusing on adaptation means taking attention or funding away from cutting emissions. But that’s a false choice. We have to do both."

Climate risk drives insurance spikes and slams home values across the US Since 2018, homes in areas most exposed to hurricanes and wildfires sold for $43,900 less than they otherwise would have beinsure.com/news/climate...

Lionesses' forward and World Cup winner Beth Mead: ‘If we don’t adapt to climate change, football becomes a privilege, not a right‘ Very true - also about many other things: insuring your home, putting food on the table... www.theguardian.com/football/202...

📉 Iowa scientists say climate change is destabilizing insurance markets. Crop insurance costs are soaring — with federal subsidies now topping $10bn/yr.

Environmental sustainability is deeply intertwined with how equitably our finite planet is shared. All the more complex given the long record of unbalanced historical exploitation of natural resources. For how long can we pretend the fundamental challenges can be ignored?

Lula, Ramaphosa and Sánchez call for an 'IPCC on inequality' “we face an inequality emergency, just as we face a climate one" "It is clearer than ever that the climate emergency is a crisis of inequality” www.ft.com/content/9cc0...

"the world increasingly wants electricity, not fossil fuels. Here again, China is skating to where the puck is going" @semafor.com on how the world is on track to have *too much* energy, with Trump's US betting on the slower, dirtier, more expensive source www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

Thousands of US hazardous sites are at risk of flooding 5,500 sites that store, emit or handle sewage, trash, oil, gas and other hazards could face coastal flooding by 2100, with half projected to face flood risk much sooner — as soon as 2050 apnews.com/article/clim...

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is responsible for almost 237 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent. Applying the Social Cost of Carbon of 185 USD/tCO2e, this means the emissions from this war will inflict over $43 billion in damages across the world en.ecoaction.org.ua/climate-dama...

New (updated) study by Ben Keys and Philip Mulder on "Property Insurance and Disaster Risk" "Premium increases are capitalized into home values, reducing home price growth by over $40,000 in the most exposed zipcodes"...

Legendary climate scientist James Hansen says climate risks for coastal cities--and young people’s futures--are far bigger and coming faster than most realize. Wall Street’s cyclic complacency can’t protect against rising seas. Column today: open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...

In coal mines, canaries served as an early warning system We too have a little bird trying to call our attention: the insurance industry with its army of actuaries We ignore that warning at our own risk, and at the risk of our children and grandchildren www.commondreams.org/opinion/clim...