Climate change risks News

Severe Storms Expected to Bring Relief, New Risks to Bushfire-Stricken Australia

Severe storms are expected to bring some relief in the coming days from huge bushfires scorching Australia but the heavy downpours could also carry the risk of landslides and water pollution, officials said on Wednesday. Australia is battling its worst …

World Economic Forum Sounds Alarms About Climate Change Risks

The World Economic Forum is sounding alarm bells on climate change, with environmental risks occupying the group’s top five long-term concerns for the first time on record. Extreme weather events, the failure of climate-change mitigation, major natural disasters, biodiversity loss …

Climate Scientists Warn that Australia’s Bushfires Could Become the New Normal

Bushfires ravaging Australia have provided a foretaste of the kinds of conditions that could become normal unless the world moves rapidly to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases driving global warming, scientists have warned. Although Australia’s government and parts of …

Australia’s Bushfires Could Surpass 2009’s Costly Season; Analysts, Insurers Comment

Australia’s bushfire season has months to run and could easily surpass the most costly fire season, 2009’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria, which had a price tag of an estimated A$4.4 billion (US$3 billion), according to Moody’s Analytics, in a …

Australians Evacuate Their Homes as Soaring Temperatures, Winds Fan Bushfires

Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be “very, very challenging” even as rain poured down in some parts. Defense …

Insurance Industry Calls for Action to Mitigate Climate Risk as Australia Bushfires Widen

As the devastation from Australia’s bushfires widens, the insurance industry is calling for concerted action to mitigate the impact of climate change. Months of out-of-control fires have burnt an area more than five times the size of Wales and industry-wide …

Financial Services Industry Must Act Faster on Climate Change: Bank of England Chief

Financial services have been too slow to cut investment in fossil fuels, a delay that could lead to a sharp increase in global temperatures, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in an interview broadcast on Monday. Carney, due to …

European Investors Urge Big-Four Auditors to Take Action on Climate Risks

European investors managing assets worth more than 1 trillion pounds ($1.28 trillion) are pressing top auditors to take urgent action on climate-related risks, warning that failure to do so could do more damage than the financial crisis. The case for …

France to Require Insurers, Banks to Run Climate Change Stress Tests in 2020

France’s financial regulator will subject banks and insurers to climate change stress tests next year, central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday. Investors are increasingly putting pressure on companies to make concrete steps to helping implement the …

Coastal Damages from Climate Change Could Cost U.K. Economy Billions by 2050: WWF

The U.K. economy could face hits of more than 12 billion pounds ($15.4 billion) a year by 2050 from coastal damages alone if no action is taken to combat climate change, according to the WWF. The calculations — made on …