Latest Climate Change Headlines
All the headlines from our Climate Change Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Democrats’ Climate Change Concern Ebbs When Congress Faces Flood Insurance
Nov 30 2018 // A Congressional stalemate over flood insurance highlights the difficulty of enacting the type of reforms urged last week in a U.S. government report on climate change — even for Democrats, who embraced the...
Survey from Regulator of Largest U.S. Insurance Market Shows More Coal Divestment by Insurers
Nov 29 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday revealed he’s had some success with his 2018 Climate Risk Carbon Initiative Coal Divestment Follow-Up Survey. Jones said the results of the survey reflect an...
Managing Natural Disasters Becomes Priority for Nation’s Governors
Nov 28 2018 // Governors have a wide range of priorities they want to tackle in the coming year, from tax reform to education. Yet it’s a topic that receives less attention on the campaign trail and in their speeches that could...
Greenhouse Gases Reach Level Last Seen 3-5 Million Years Ago: WMO Report
Nov 27 2018 // Greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere reached a record not seen since sea levels were 10 meters to 20 meters (33 feet to 66 feet) higher than they are now, the World Meteorological Organization said in a...
XL Insurance to Cut Coal Industry Business Under Parent AXA’s Climate Order
Nov 26 2018 // AXA, France’s biggest insurer, has extended its climate change policy to its recently acquired XL division, joining a growing list of European insurers that have taken action to help to tackle global warming. AXA,...
Report by 13 U.S. Agencies Warns of Dire Economic Effects from Climate Change
Nov 25 2018 // As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming....
Researchers: Houston Skyscrapers Slowed Hurricane Harvey, Causing More Rain
Nov 21 2018 // Humans helped make recent devastating U.S. hurricanes wetter but in different ways, two new studies find. Hurricane Harvey snagged on the skyscrapers of Houston, causing it to slow and dump more rain than it normally...
Carbon Copies of Flo, Jake, Gecko Join Climate Change Protest at NAIC Meeting
Nov 15 2018 // An angry Flo, an unusually sullen Jake, a less-than cheeky Gecko and a hawkish duck stood outside the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting in San Francisco on Thursday in protest to call out the industry...
Solutions to Wildfires in Time of Climate Change Are Costly, Unpopular
Nov 14 2018 // California’s deadly wildfires have a straightforward solution, experts say: stop building homes in places that are likely to burn — and make homes that already exist in those areas a whole lot tougher. That...
Critics Say Bond Rating Agencies Ignore Municipalities’ Climate Risk
Nov 5 2018 // Last fall, after a trio of deadly hurricanes, ratings companies warned vulnerable coastal cities to get ready for climate change — or face higher borrowing costs on the $3.9 trillion municipal bond market. Climate...
New York Says Exxon Misled Investors About Climate Risks
Oct 26 2018 // New York’s attorney general on Wednesday sued Exxon Mobil, saying the Texas energy giant has misled investors about the risks that climate change poses to its operations. The lawsuit filed by Attorney General Barbara...
Climate Change Impact Assessment Looks at Risk, Readiness Around U.S.
Oct 25 2018 // Low risk, but low readiness. That’s the assessment for Long Beach, Calif., a city that’s close to my heart. For those who love numbers, the city has a risk score of 49.48, and a readiness score of 47.01. Not...
New York AG ‘Puts Up,’ Sues Exxon Over Climate Change Disclosures
Oct 25 2018 // Lawyers for Exxon Mobil Corp. stood before a New York judge in August and told the state’s attorney general to “put up or shut up” after spending three years investigating the company’s public...
Judge Rules Government, Not President, Can Be Sued Over Climate Change
Oct 16 2018 // A group of young Americans suing the federal government over lack of action to fight climate change can proceed with their lawsuit, but U.S. President Donald Trump cannot be named as a defendant, a federal judge ruled on...
UK Insurers, Banks Need ‘Credible Plans’ for Climate Change Risks: Bank of England
Oct 15 2018 // Britain’s banks and insurers must come up with credible plans for protecting themselves against risks from climate change and may need to hold more capital, the Bank of England said on Monday. “Financial risks...
The IPCC Climate Change Report and Implications for Insurers
Oct 11 2018 // A report out earlier this week from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change doesn’t say a whole lot about insurance, but the implications for the industry are hard to ignore. Chief among those implications is...
American Economists’ Work on Climate Change, Benefits of Technology Earn Nobel Prize
Oct 9 2018 // Americans William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, pioneers in adapting the western economic growth model to focus on environmental issues and sharing the benefits of technology, won the 2018 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday. In a...
Urgent Action Needed to Avoid ‘Unthinkable’ Damage from Climate Change: UN
Oct 8 2018 // Society would have to enact “unprecedented” changes to how it consumes energy, travels and builds to meet a lower global warming target or it risks increases in heat waves, flood-causing storms and the chances...
Airport Operators Take Action Against Rising Seas, Powerful Storms as Climate Changes
Oct 1 2018 // Global airport operators, faced with rising sea levels and more powerful storms as the climate changes, are starting to invest in measures including higher runways, seawalls and better drainage systems to future-proof...
Businesses Should Prepare for Consequences of Climate Change, Zurich Says
Sep 27 2018 // Businesses should prepare for the physical consequences of a warming planet, according to a new report out from Zurich Insurance Group. The report, “Managing the impacts of climate change: risk management...
