Banks Are Finally Realizing What Climate Change Will Do to Housing
June 17th, 2024
Via Wired, a report on how extreme weather threatens the investment value of many properties, but financing for climate mitigation efforts are only just getting going: Rising sea levels, biodiversity collapse, extreme weather—these are the grisly horsemen of climate apocalypse. But don’t forget the fretting loan officers. A study published earlier this year found that US mortgage […]
Read more »Homeowners Face $25T Bill from Climate Change
April 14th, 2024
Via The Economist, a report on the risk that climate change poses to property owners: The residents of northern Italy had never seen anything like the thunderstorm that mauled their region last summer. Hailstones as big as 19cm across pummelled Milan, Parma, Turin and Venice. Windows were broken, solar panels smashed, tiles cracked and cars dented. […]
Read more »Investors Tap Into Demand For Electric Buses With New Funding Model
April 10th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on a fund that will help finance the electrification of London’s iconic red buses: A group of investors has launched a £100mn fund to help finance the electrification of London’s iconic red buses. Insurer Aviva and Rock Rail, a UK-based owner and asset manager of rolling stock, have […]
Read more »L.A. County Faces $12.5B In Climate Costs Through 2040
April 9th, 2024
Courtesy of Los Angeles Times, a look at L.A. County estimated $12.5 billion in climate costs through 2040: A first-of-its-kind report has estimated that Los Angeles County must invest billions of dollars through 2040 to protect residents from worsening climate hazards, including extreme heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels and climate-induced public health […]
Read more »Combining Heat Pumps with Smart Tariffs, Solar and Batteries
February 6th, 2024
An insightful LinkedIn analysis on potential to combine heat pumps with smart tariffs, solar and batteries: There has been a lot of interest recently looking at whether heat pumps should be left on all the time – and how this works with time of use (ToU) tariffs. Over the last year I have had the […]
Read more »Empowered by Solar Panels, Here Come the Armchair Energy Traders
September 23rd, 2023
Courtesy of HeatMap, a look at the rise of the “armchair” energy traders, empowered by their home solar panels: The new film Dumb Money gives home traders the Hollywood treatment. The movie, based on the GameStop saga of 2021, recounts how amateur stock enthusiasts and trolls united on online platforms like Reddit drove up the stock price […]
Read more »'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.
'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.
It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.