Bill to Make Big Companies in California Disclose Emissions Worth Watching in All States

A bill to make large companies in California disclose their emissions is worth a watch in all states.

The moving through California Legislature – it passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee this week – could set a stage in other states for similar proposals. the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission already has proposed rules require public companies to spell out their own direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, but the California bill appears to go further.

Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, would require the State Air Resources Board to develop regulations requiring specified business entities with total annual revenues over $1 billion doing business in California to disclose greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2026.

SB 253 would also require the board to contract with an academic institution to prepare a report on the disclosures made by reporting entities, and it would create a small annual fee to fund to oversight of regulations that would seek administrative penalties for violations of the bill’s provisions.

“The people, communities, and other stakeholders in California, facing the existential threat of climate change, have a right to know about the sources of carbon pollution, as measured by the comprehensive GHG emissions data of those companies benefiting from doing business in the state, in order to make informed decisions,” the bill states.

It is not unheard of for other states or nations to follow climate framework laid down in California. In fact, he bill’s language notes that “the climate actions of the state have inspired and contributed to bold actions in other states and across the globe.”

The bill is now in the Appropriations Committee.

Vermont Flooding

Expect the severe flooding being seen in Vermont to occur more frequently in coming decades throughout the Northeast and much of the eastern U.S., several experts told USA TODAY.

USA TODAY reporter Dinah Voyles Pulver’s piece this week features interviews with numerous climate scientists warning about the likelihood of future comparable events.

The piece also draws on a study from Dartmouth that warned in May that heavy rainfall events could increase in the Northeast by an additional 52% by the end of the century.

“While it’s difficult to decisively say anything about one event, this is completely consistent with increasing precipitation in the Northeast and part of that being driven by climate change,” Jonathan Winter, associate professor of geography at Dartmouth, told the USA TODAY.

Ken Kunkel, an atmospheric sciences professor at North Carolina State University, told the publication that the number of rainfall events with 5 inches of rainfall has increased by about 100% over about 50 years or so in the Northeast.

NOAA records gathered for the piece show: seven of the 15 wettest years in the 127-year record in Vermont occurred between 2003 and 2019; New York’s nine of the 15 wettest years dating back to 1895 occurred between 2003 and 2021; annual rainfall in the Northeast region has been below the long-term average only twice since 2000.

Morningstar

DBRS Morningstar analysts say credit ratings of global property insurers are coming under pressure from rising reinsurance costs due to growing losses that industry players say are in part driven by the impact of climate change.

Rising reinsurance costs are forcing insurers to cut back on coverage and retain more risks themselves, Reuters reported in an article this week on Insurance Journal.

Global reinsurance prices have gone through six years of increases.

They were up 27% in January from a year earlier, the largest annual increase since 2006, Morningstar analysts said.

Morningstar said insurers that maintain optimum reinsurance levels without hiking premiums would see underwriting profits deteriorate, while those reducing reinsurance cover could see more volatile earnings as risks materialize, Reuters reported.

Insurers can pay more for the same reinsurance, or reduce costs by restricting new business, withdrawing risky certain regions or business lines or adjusting their strategy, Morningstar said.

Underground Climate Change

Underground climate change is weakening buildings, according to a new study of downtown Chicago.

It is already known that city streets, sidewalks and roofs absorb heat, making some urban areas up to 6 degrees hotter than rural aeras, forming “urban heat islands.” However, this effect can also occur underground as the city heat from above reaches and basements, subway tunnels and other subterranean infrastructures to create hotspots as the planet warms, according to an article in the Scientific American.

The study of downtown Chicago shows the underground hotspots may threaten the same structures that emit the heat, making the ground around them expand and contract. “Without [anyone] realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” study author Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, a civil and environmental engineer at Northwestern University, told the Scientific American.

The findings were published in the journal Communications Engineering. The temperature data came from more than 150 sensors installed in basements, train tunnels and parking garages underneath Chicago’s downtown Loop district. According to the Scientific American, temperatures beneath Loop buildings were often 18 degrees F hotter than those beneath Grant Park, where sensors were also installed in the ground for comparison purposes.

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