Latest Climate Change Headlines
All the headlines from our Climate Change Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Wildfires, Hurricane Michael Top List of 2018’s Costliest Natural Disasters: Munich Re
Jan 8 2019 // The costliest natural catastrophes occurred in the United States in 2018 with one of California’s devastating wildfires and Hurricane Michael topping the list, according to Munich Re. A report from Munich Re on last...
New California Commissioner to Confront Climate-Fueled Fires, Expand Healthcare
Jan 8 2019 // As Ricardo Lara took office as California Insurance Commissioner at a ceremony in Sacramento on Monday, he pledged to help residents recover from wildfires while defeating the threat of climate change. Lara, the eighth...
Exxon Bid to Halt Climate Change Probes Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court
Jan 7 2019 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the attorney general of Massachusetts to obtain records from Exxon Mobil Corp to probe whether the oil company for decades concealed its knowledge of the role fossil...
Southern California City Asking Residents for Suggestions on Battling Climate Change
Jan 3 2019 // The city of Long Beach, Calif. is soliciting help from its citizens to come up with a plan to deal with climate change. The coastal city of roughly half-a-million, which was an early adopter of the ban on plastic bags and...
Trial Lawyers Cite ‘Worst Corporate Conduct’ of 2018
Dec 31 2018 // Not surprisingly, the American Association for Justice—representing the country’s trial lawyers– takes a very different view of the civil justice system than does the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal...
Underestimating Climate Change Risks Could Hit Investors: Opinion
Dec 27 2018 // As the effects of climate change unfold, its impact on business will grow more severe: altered rain patterns will affect agriculture, floods will disrupt supply lines, heat waves will prevent employees from working. If...
California Commissioner Pushing Insurer Fossil Fuel Divestment to The End
Dec 20 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones continues to push the fossil fuel divestment hot button right to the end of the year and his tenure as the state’s head insurance regulator. Jones this week released the...
Allstate Says Losses from California Fires $670M, CEO Wants to Address Climate Change
Dec 13 2018 // Allstate this week announced estimated catastrophe losses for the month of November 2018 of $685 million, pre-tax ($541 million, after-tax). Catastrophe losses occurring in November comprised six events at an estimated...
How Nations Rank for Climate Risk Measures
Dec 5 2018 // Denmark and Britain are the top countries when it comes to implementing measures to fight climate change, although Britain has lagged in phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, a report published by academics said on...
Climate Risk Index Shows Rich and Poor Nations Threatened by Devastating Storms
Dec 5 2018 // The devastation caused by powerful storms is a growing threat to both poor and rich nations, propelling Caribbean islands to the top of a global index of countries most severely affected by weather disasters last year,...
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...
