Risk Management/Adaptation - Climate Extra

EPA Extends Priority Access In HFC Phasedown Program To ‘Critical’ Sectors

EPA is extending priority access to climate-warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) allowances for five “critical” sectors, as it continues to implement a broader congressionally mandated phasedown of the chemicals often used in refrigeration, foams, aerosols and other products. “By renewing priority access for five applications, the Trump administration is ensuring that critical health, defense, and technology sectors can continue to operate efficiently and effectively, bolstering human health, national security, and American technology,” EPA says in an Aug. 22 press release announcing a...

Advocates Criticize Plan To Undo Financing Incentive For Climate Efforts

Progressive groups are criticizing banking regulators’ proposal to rescind a Biden-era rule encouraging banks to provide financing to low- and moderate-income families and communities looking to boost climate resilience, part of long-standing requirements to spur investment in communities to counter the effects of redlining. In comments submitted ahead of an Aug. 18 deadline, left-leaning advocacy groups defended the 2023 update, arguing the July 18 proposal damages low- and moderate- income communities’ access to funds for mitigating against climate change damages...

Environmentalists Back New York Climate Change Law Against DOJ Attack

Several environmental groups are asking to intervene on New York’s behalf to defend the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act that requires fossil fuel companies to help fund infrastructure upgrades and disaster mitigation, with the law facing attacks from the Trump administration, industry groups and GOP-led states. The groups filed an Aug. 15 motion to intervene on New York’s behalf in the case, United States, et al. v. New York, et al. , in the U.S. District Court for the Southern...

National Academies To Study AI’s Climate Benefits, With Tech Firm Support

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) are preparing a study of how artificial intelligence (AI) could help mitigate the effects of climate change, with support from major technology companies, even as the Trump administration is slashing government efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. “Possible topics of discussion may include: emerging AI tools to advance climate modeling and resilience efforts, key needs for climate information at local and national levels, and ways AI can transform climate science into...

Court Blocks FEMA From Diverting Funds Intended For Climate Resilience

A district court is blocking the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from diverting pre-disaster mitigation funds to other purposes, a move that temporarily blocks the Trump administration’s attempt to end a major program used for climate resilience projects. The order comes despite FEMA complaints that the case is not yet ripe because the agency has not yet formally terminated the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. “The government is preliminarily enjoined from spending the funds allocated to BRIC for...

EPA GHG Plan Cites DOE Report Questioning Mainstream Climate Science

EPA is citing an Energy Department (DOE) report attacking many mainstream climate change scientific findings to help justify its proposal to repeal the Obama-era greenhouse gas endangerment finding that forms the basis for agency climate rules, though several scientists are already attacking the report for misrepresenting their past work. DOE’s report was compiled by five outside scientists who have long sought to elevate uncertainty about the risks of anthropogenic climate change, with the Trump administration calling them the Climate Working...

Democratic States Sue FEMA Over Scrapping Pre-Disaster Grant Program

Democratic-led states are suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regarding what they say is an illegal termination of a pre-disaster mitigation program that supporters say boosts climate resilience efforts, with Trump officials re-allocating the program’s funds to post-disaster relief as part of a broader overhaul of the agency. “[E]very state in the nation is relying on this program,” the states write in a July 16 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. “All that changed...

Input For Senate Highway Bill Includes Calls To Boost Climate Resilience

Senators’ effort to gather input on the next highway bill is showcasing a push to ensure the climate resilience of future transportation projects, and also spurring perennial calls for legislative permit streamlining efforts -- amid questions about whether lawmakers can reach a deal on the issue that withstands implementation by the White House. Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) during a July 16 hearing said, “I’m excited to get to work and continue the EPW...

Faulting Science, Conservative Group Asks EPA To Overhaul Climate Model

A conservative group is petitioning EPA under the Information Quality Act (IQA) to withdraw a key model of future global climate change effects, the latest push to curb the government’s use of mainstream climate science by citing President Donald Trump’s recent executive order pledging to end the government’s “highly misleading” use of science. The Center for Environmental Accountability (CEA) filed a June 27 petition requesting reconsideration of EPA’s 2024 update to Framework for Evaluating Damages and Impacts (FrEDI), faulting its...

White House Shutters Key Federal Climate Website, Sparking Pushback

The White House has shuttered the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program (USGCRP) website -- including its access to congressionally mandated national climate assessment (NCA) reports on the implications of climate change -- drawing fire from environmentalists and experts involved in the periodic climate reports. Observers are interpreting the move as part of a continuing effort to undermine the USGCRP and the periodic climate reviews, even as they argue that efforts to block access to climate information cannot succeed, urge...

Climate Group Urges More Insurers To Adopt ‘Targets’ In Risk Disclosures

A sustainable finance advocacy group is urging the insurance sector to continue improving climate-related financial disclosures, arguing that while nearly all insurers are outlining broad strategies concerning their risks tied to climate change, only about a third are detailing metrics and targets for addressing such risks. “This suggests that while companies are increasingly acknowledging climate risks and establishing governance and risk management processes, there remains a substantial gap in quantifying these risks and setting measurable targets for addressing them,” says...

NOAA stops reporting $1 billion climate disaster data

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it will no longer report data on $1 billion climate-related disasters, the latest Trump administration announcement about ending climate-related data collection. “In alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) will no longer be updating the Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product,” a banner across the NCEI website reads. Advocates for tougher climate resilience policies are criticizing the decision. “This Trump administration move...

Trump’s Dismissal Of Climate Assessment Authors Confirms Prior Fears

The Trump administration’s dismissal of hundreds of experts working on the next federal climate science assessment is confirming fears that its recent scuttling of funding for the United States Global Research Program (USGCRP) would foreshadow efforts to undermine the congressionally mandated study. The move is also sparking questions about the extent to which the dismissals could affect EPA’s upcoming reconsideration of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, though some observers doubt such a link given that the latter process is expected...

Trump Said To Cancel Climate Review Contract, Amid EPA GHG Rollbacks

Reports that the Trump administration has scaled back or terminated a contract supporting staff for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) are sparking fears that officials will effectively kill or significantly repurpose a congressionally mandated federal climate assessment in ways that could accelerate climate misinformation. The reports are also prompting questions about whether the administration’s climate science personnel action might set the stage for future release of information that the administration might use to inform, or later defend, a...

Trump Ends Disaster Resilience Program As Officials Weigh FEMA’s Future

Trump officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are ending a program that provided funds to states and local communities to harden infrastructure against natural disasters, asserting that the program sought to advance the Biden administration’s “political” climate agenda. Nearly $1 billion in unused funds will be returned to the Treasury or reallocated by Congress next fiscal year, the agency says in an April 4 press release announcing plans to terminate the Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities (BRIC) program. The...

Foreign Policy Group Seeks Officials’ Focus On 3-Degree Warming Scenario

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is highlighting arguments that U.S. policymakers should plan for a scenario in which the globe experiences 3 degrees Celsius of warming from pre-industrial levels, arguing this would be part of a “pragmatic” response to the limits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while still protecting U.S. interests. The group’s multi-year effort, known as the Climate Realism Initiative, seeks to “confront the threat of climate change, compete in the shifting global energy landscape and build a...

Trump EO Seeks To Boost Timber Industry, Arguing It Will Cut Wildfire Risk

President Donald Trump is directing federal agencies to speed permits and take other actions to expand timber and bioenergy production on federal lands, arguing that boosting the industry will help decrease wildfire risk and otherwise improve environmental quality. Trump in the March 1 executive order claims the U.S. “has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs,” but it blames “heavy-handed” federal policies for preventing domestic production of timber and other...

Biden Officials Warn Of Climate-Linked Insurance Costs, Coverage Limits

Biden officials in their final days in office released a first-time national analysis of climate-related risks in homeowners insurance markets, finding that areas with higher projected losses from climate disasters are facing greater rate increases and instances of insurers not renewing policies. The findings could help enable additional action from state officials to address such risks as insurance companies are grappling with a series of high-profile disasters linked to climate change such as the Los Angeles-area wildfires -- even as...

Environmentalists Urge FEMA To Favor Renewables In Resilience Funding

Environmental groups are pressuring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use its disaster recovery funds to boost low-carbon energy rather than repairing fossil fuel-related infrastructure -- which they say would increase communities’ resilience -- though the agency is urging a district court to dismiss one lawsuit seeking to spur such an approach. Most recently, FEMA in an Oct. 30 filing urges the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss environmentalists’ case arguing the agency has failed...

National Academies Seeks To Bolster Climate Change ‘Attribution’ Efforts

The National Academies Of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is launching a new committee to advance efforts to link extreme weather events to climate change, a move that could bolster underlying support to address the challenge amid significant partisan splits on climate and clean energy policy. The effort concerns “extreme event attribution,” which seeks to quantify the impact of human-caused climate change on a specific extreme weather event. Some scientists are already conducting such attribution studies now, and environmentalists are...

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