Economics

A new report from the First Street Foundation found that 39 million U.S. properties are overvalued because damage risks from climate change “have yet to be reflected in the insurance premiums.” The properties are “likely overvalued due to the underpricing or subsidization of climate risk in their insurance. … It has the potential to impact property values in a way that’s similar to what we saw in the last recession in 2008.”

Until quite recently, high-polluting fossil fuels (especially coal) were by far the cheapest sources of energy available. Renewables didn’t come close. But in the past decade, the unsubsidized price of electricity from solar and wind declined by 89% and 69%, respectively. And the cost of lithium-ion batteries – which are needed to smooth out the intermittent supply of solar and wind energy – has declined by 90%. As a result, new solar power plants have gone from being 710% more expensive than the cheapest fossil-fueled plants in 2010 to being 29% cheaper now, and new onshore wind plants have gone from …

Robert Litterman is a legend on Wall Street. He earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1980. In his 23 years at Goldman Sachs he oversaw quants, managed risk and developed, with the great applied mathematician Fischer Black, the Black-Litterman model for portfolio allocation. Now he’s a founding partner […]

A financial official from an island that’s among the world’s most vulnerable to global warming has a plan to quickly increase the amount spent on climate solutions in developing nations. And his plan requires little additional spending…

What we can do now to address climate change is simple:

1. Electrify everything, and
2. Greenify the grid.

The tech is available, at reasonable costs, NOW. It won’t solve everything, but it’ll get us more than half way. NOW. This one-pager from CCL is a map. Check it out! Hand it out!

Both technological changes and the incentives unleashed by the IRA, the infrastructure law and other policies have triggered a massive response from the private sector in early, promising solutions.

Just last month, the Biden Administration recommended that the government nearly quadruple its social cost of carbon — a monetary estimate of the costs to the economy, environment and human welfare for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

On Jan. 1, middle-income households will be able to access over a half-dozen tax credits for electric stoves, cars, rooftop solar and more.  Sometime in mid-2023, lower-income households will be able to get upfront discounts on some of those same appliances. This handy online tool shows what you might be eligible for.

For your cost-benefit calculations: “Urban development, wealth accumulation in disaster-prone areas, inflation and climate change are key factors at play, turning extreme weather into ever rising natural catastrophe losses,” explained Martin Bertogg, Swiss Re’s head of catastrophe perils.

Never underestimate the power of incumbent special interests to feather their own nests. We rely on Market incentives, which are a function of the TOTAL cost of ownership.