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This blog was authored by Talley Burley, Manager, Climate Risk & Insurance and Carolyn Kousky, Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy.  This is the third blog in a multi-part series on how insurers can support decarbonization and the energy transition. This series explores opportunities and challenges and highlights emerging insurance innovations that can drive emissions reductions. In …

In recent years, North Carolina communities have weathered one storm after another, with Hurricane Helene being no exception. Hurricane Helene followed a once-in-a-thousand-year rain event in western North Carolina, which as a result caused widespread devastation and $53 billion of damage to the state alone. The impacts also stretched far beyond North Carolina, affecting communities throughout …

From extensive droughts across the Great Plains and back-to-back hurricanes damaging vegetable and citrus crops in the Southeast, the last two production seasons have demonstrated the intensifying damage of extreme weather on America’s farms. In 2023 alone, natural disasters caused nearly $22 billion in crop and rangeland losses. While crop insurance is a critical safety …

Detailed in Virginia's 2025 Common Agenda are three key opportunities for lawmakers to continue progress on flood resilience initiatives.    The post Ahead of the 2025 General Assembly, here are 3 ways to build flood resilience in Virginia first appeared on Growing Returns.

These devastating disasters underscore the need and urgency to build resilience and ensure preparedness ahead of future storms. Florida leaders have made great progress this year to better protect residents, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Let’s look back at Florida’s 2024 progress and consider new initiatives to prepare for the next storm.  The post How Florida built resilience this hurricane season and what can be done to prepare for future storms first appeared on Growing Returns.

By: Aubrey Taylor Tropical Storm Oscar crept up from the North Atlantic Ocean at a leisurely 40 miles per hour on the morning of Oct. 19, 2024 and ambled toward the Turks and Caicos Islands. Based on the data available, meteorologists believed the tiny storm was unlikely to cause major damage. Yet only three hours …

America’s farms and food are on the frontlines of more extreme weather. We owe it to farmers, ranchers and families to make food production more resilient.

New report highlights policy lessons for Florida to stabilize insurance markets, protect communities, and build resilience against growing climate risks.

Analysis from EDF and partners identifies key policy recommendations to stabilize insurance markets and protect vulnerable communities in the face of increasing climate disasters.

At the U.N.'s annual climate summit, COP29, island leaders demand urgent action.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowans face the threat of economic harm and damage to public health from severe storms and other extreme weather events.

Many Texans are under enormous and increasing financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.

More than one million North Carolinians have filed for unemployment, and countless small businesses have shuttered.

Arizonans face the growing threat of additional economic harm and damage to public health from excessive heat, drought and other extreme weather events.

The annual number of billion-dollar weather disasters has increased and the cost of inaction is putting a strain on disaster response and recovery budgets.

This report is based on a literature search of available information on the costs of climate change-fueled extreme weather events.

This report, based on a mapping assessment, a first-ever survey of co-ops and a policy review, looks at climate impacts on permanently affordable co-ops in New York City and encourages more responsive and equitable policies.

  Fear, uncertainty and doubt are frequently-used tools to undermine environmental policy. For decades, polluters and their sympathizers rejected the existence of climate change. Now, they say climate action costs too much. This recurring argument ignores the costs working Californians are already facing from a changing climate and the clear benefits of California’s climate policy …

Co-authored by: Anushi Garg and Linda Shi Anushi is the senior analyst for Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds program in New York-New Jersey. Linda is the associate professor for Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. New York City, like many cities, is simultaneously facing a housing affordability crisis and …

Home insurance costs are on the rise. Here's what that means for you.

The Biden administration announced nearly $2 billion in investments for 38 projects that will strengthen the electric grid

As the United Nations biodiversity summit, COP16, approaches, Environmental Defense Fund's Amanda Leland explains three vital steps to protecting nature while also helping the world tackle climate change.

Here are seven helpful tips if you are currently going through the recovery process after a natural disaster.

EDF study estimates the potential impact of interpretations of the 2023 Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency ruling on federal wetlands protections, using a qualitative measure of wetland “wetness” as a proxy for the new requirement.

New peer-reviewed analysis by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), published by Science, reveals that millions of acres of critical wetland habitat have lost vital protections in the wake of a 2023 Supreme Court of the United States majority opinion (Sackett v EPA) that drastically narrowed the scope of wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act.