California’s Uninsurable Future?
February 9th, 2024
Courtesy of Impact Alpha, an interview with California’s climate-risk pioneer Dave Jones on the state’s march ‘toward an uninsurable future’: Dave Jones was California’s state insurance commissioner eight years ago when the then-novel idea of fossil fuel “stranded assets” caught his attention. The research from a group called Carbon Tracker made Jones concerned that the insurers […]
Read more »These States Are Basically Begging You to Get a Heat Pump
February 8th, 2024
Via Wired, a look at how nine U.S. states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of this climate superhero: Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. They’re already outselling gas furnaces in the US, and now a coalition of states has signed an agreement to supercharge the gas-to-electric transition […]
Read more »Neighborhood-Scale Building Decarbonization
February 7th, 2024
Via Smart Cities Dive, a look at two approaches to neighborhood-scale building decarbonization: Communities must shift to a neighborhood-scale approach to building decarbonization if they want to meet federal and state climate goals, speakers said at a Jan. 25 webinar organized by the Building Decarbonization Coalition. This emerging strategy focuses on decarbonizing entire street segments, developments or neighborhoods at once. The […]
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 »The Promise of Passive House Design
February 5th, 2024
Via Yale Climate Connections, a look at the promise of passive design – the extraordinarily energy-efficient building method slashes climate pollution from homes, hospitals, schools, and high rises: Imagine a home so efficient that it could be heated with a hair dryer. That’s the promise of a passive house, a design standard that’s becoming increasingly […]
Read more »Going Dutch: An Approach to Flood Control Flows into Charleston
February 5th, 2024
Via Charleston City Paper, a look at how Charleston is borrowing flood control techniques from the Dutch: The Dutch solution to flood control is not confined to its iconic 17th century crescent-shaped network of canals lined with skinny houses and flat houseboats that form an inner-city drainage and transportation system in Amsterdam’s historic core. In […]
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.