Excited to share a new @nber.org paper w/Blonz/Hossain/Mulder/Weill where we show credit scores impact homeowners insurance premiums as much as disaster risk.
Here’s what happened in WA when they banned credit scoring:
JOB OPENING! If you want to work as a reporter with Nature's US news team, this is a VERY RARE opportunity. The beat is physical sciences/energy & environment/technology. DC or NYC location. Deadline 3/27. Join our awesome team! #journojobs
springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/es/SpringerN...
1/3: Here's what wild about gas prices right now. The past two days have seen the largest increase in gas prices ($0.22/gallon) since 2005, making it one of the fastest increases ever. What's suprising about this is not only the magnitude, but the speed of the passthrough.
🚨TOMORROW🚨 at the Virtual Seminar on Climate Economics, @tbourany.bsky.social will discuss "The Optimal Design of Climate Agreements"
5pm Europe / 11am East Coast
Register here for the webinar link: cepr.org/events/event...
Risk Rating 2.0 is gradually phasing out premium subsidies in the NFIP
Flood insurance is definitely still subsidized quite heavily in some locations, particularly in the South, though that is changing. But this interesting new paper shows Florida households may be paying substantially more than their climate risk for wind coverage: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Economists love to point to insurance as the market-based solution for adaptation - allow premiums to reflect risk and adaptation will follow.
In the real world there are limits to the effectiveness of this approach.
Nice commentary by Jo Weil and Jesse Gourevitch:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Love to see it - and the 2023 ERP shout out. Best ERP ever?? (still wearing my sweatshirt)
Adaptation is millions of decentralized decisions: where people live/work, what they buy, what they build, what they insure. Policy that improves incentives/info can move those margins at scale.
Great new Science article from my colleague Delavane Diaz and others: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The National Science Foundation’s entire budget is $10 billion.
Coasean bargaining wins again?
Classic externality and collective action problem
Amazing how much we knew about climate change back in 1965. And to realize this was clearly communicated to the highest levels of government when *my parents* were still teenagers.
Not a lawyer, but I guess it depends how cynical you are about the supreme court? A cynic would say no impact since most justices are just looking to roll back climate action. If you care about the argument that EPA's authority depends on congressional intent though, then this seems pretty relevant
This cool paper by @naomioreskes.bsky.social lays out just how much was known about climate change by 1970 when the Clean Air Act was passed
www.ecologylawquarterly.org/print/climat...
The Supreme Court says Congress needs to speak explicitly when it intends agencies to regulate on major economic issues. Seems pretty clear what was intended here.
Things I learned today - language in the Clean Air Act explicitly defines "air pollutant" to include anything with adverse effects on weather and climate
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Geology is always cool
“Our transition to EVs is aimed at ensuring our energy sovereignty,” said Ethiopia’s state minister for transport and logistics. “As a net importer of fuel, we are affected by global supply and price fluctuations. In contrast, EVs use electricity, which we produce locally and can price ourselves.”
The map below displays county-level estimates of inflation-adjusted annual direct damages from natural disasters across the United States, based on a methodology that was developed by New York Fed economists and applied to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Events Database. Users can filter the data by disaster type and focus on states and counties of interest. Full prior-year data are released in August, with revisions to the dataset posted in February. See the Overview and FAQ tabs for more information.
NY Fed updates map of U.S. for losses from natural disaters, data covers 2024. www.newyorkfed.org/research/pol...
New series of the Virtual Seminar on Climate Economics begins this Thursday at 8am Pacific Time. A great lineup of speakers for the spring series. Register here for the zoom link:
cepr.org/events/event...
There is a private catastrophe modeling industry supporting insurance pricing, but these rest on a foundation of models and data that were developed by public institutions such as NCAR
NCAR and the climate and weather services it provides are a classic example of a public good. These broadly support other sectors of the economy and will not be provided efficiently by the private sector. Critical case in point - insurance pricing
Informative resource on post-LA fires housing instability.
~70% of respondents (total N=2,443) still in temporary housing in December '25.
Among those relying on property insurance to pay for temporary housing, 22% in Pacific Palisades reported they've "already ran out" of displacement coverage.
NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months
* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor
If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…
www.carbonbrief.org/...
This is so egregious given the Administration has literally resorted to NOT COUNTING THE BENEFITS of GHG emissions reduction in order try and justify their repeal of climate regulations on cost-benefit grounds.
Thanks @washingtonpost.com for this sloppy and misleading editorial.
Today we’re launching Open Climate Risk, a fully open option for U.S. building-level climate risk data. It’s unique because it allows you to see not only risk scores, starting with wildfire, but also the complete underlying dataset, methods, and codebase. carbonplan.org/research/cli...
"The grid is decarbonizing" is not the same as "everyone benefits."
New EPRI analysis connects nodal power system modeling with community vulnerability data to track distributional air quality impacts. The who is the point.
Hi Neighbor! Also @sidersadapts.bsky.social @envpolicycenter.bsky.social @andrewdessler.com
Fascinating - COVID 19 lockdowns reduced NOx emissions (less car and plane traffic), limiting OH formation and slowing the rate of CH4 removal. This, plus elevated wetland emissions, accounts for the 2020-2022 methane spike.
