Biden's Adaptation Billions, California Climate Superfund Talk, Earth Observation Tech, and More

Finance:

• Biden Commits Billions to Adaptation on Exit

• Climate Hazards Threaten Financial Stability, Global Regulators Warn

Policy:

• Could LA Fires Put a California ‘Climate Superfund’ Back on the Table?

• US Scraps Climate Reporting Rules for Contractors 

Tech:

• Geospatial Firm ICEYE Launches New Satellites

Research:

• Another round-up of papers and journal articles on all things climate adaptation

Biden Commits Billions to Adaptation on Exit

By the time you read this newsletter, Joe Biden will no longer be President of the United States. A second Trump term will have begun.

Still, the climate legacy of the 46th president should long outlast his tenure in the Oval Office. This is as true for adaptation and resilience as it is to efforts to reduce US climate pollution. In the final 51 days of his presidency, Biden’s administration announced more than US$2bn in funding for climate-proofing activities, from protecting western states from wildfires to bolstering drought resilience in Tribal communities. 

A hefty chunk of this financing was authorized by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Together, these bills unlocked US$50bn for climate resilience, according to the White House. 

However, many of these dollars have taken time to be “obligated” — meaning assigned to specific projects and agencies. Biden promised to disburse as much as possible before his term expired, which would make it harder for Trump to either redirect or freeze the investments once he’s sworn into office. Last Friday, a White House official said 84% of IRA grants had been successfully obligated. On climate resilience, a White House report says around US$35bn across 7,000 climate-proofing projects had been announced.

Among the largest financing announcements made in recent days include US$223mn for 18 desalination and water recycling projects that could alleviate drought conditions in eight states, and US$121mn to harden Tribes and Tribal organizations against climate impacts by supporting adaptation planning, relocation efforts, and ocean and coastal management. A full list of funding announcements from the Department of the Interior and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) can be found here.

For his part, President Trump has called global warming a “hoax” and promoted conspiracies and misinformation around climate-related disasters, like last year’s Hurricane Helene and the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires.

Climate Hazards Threaten Financial Stability, Global Regulators Warn

Climate shocks could throw markets into turmoil and force banks to curb lending, the world’s top panel of financial regulators has said.

“Physical risks are resulting in greater economic damage, which may impact institutions’ ability to continue to provide financial services in certain segments and geographies,” the Financial Stability Board (FSB) states in its latest report. Risks from extreme weather events, slow-onset climate risks, and changes brought about by human efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could also “threaten financial stability” by causing “a significant and abrupt repricing of climate-exposed assets.”

The report includes an analytical framework and toolkit that watchdogs can use to track climate risk throughout the global financial system. This includes a mapping of climate shocks across traditional financial risk factors — like credit, market, and liquidity risk — and a description of how these could ricochet among market participants, from insurers to investment funds to non-bank financial institutions.

The framework also looks at how the web of relationships between financial actors could amplify the impact of climate shocks, by amplifying their effects or triggering feedback loops. For example, climate shocks could knock out insurers by swamping them with claims, making fewer properties insurable and increasing the risk to banks that mortgage holders could default on their loans. The banks in turn could pullback on home lending to compensate.

Framework For The Assessment Of Climate-Related Vulnerabilities

“If this were to occur, risks related to physical hazards could be transferred to other parts of the financial and non-financial system, including potentially the public sector as the de facto backstop or insurer of last resort,” the report reads. This dynamic is already on display in California, where the state-supported FAIR plan saw its exposure increase 61% in 2024, in part because of the retreat of private insurers from the climate risk-vulnerable market.

The FSB report also highlights an array of climate risk indicators and metrics that supervisors and private institutions can use to track their exposure and vulnerability to shocks. These include measures like climate-stressed loan-to-value ratios and insurance protection gaps. 

However, the FSB has little to say on adaptation, though climate-proofing measures could go some way to reducing financial institutions’ risk exposure and vulnerability.

In Brief

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced a third round of low-cost climate resilience loans for local governments. The Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grant program can be tapped by states, territories, Tribal Nations, and the District of Columbia to finance hazard mitigation and harden communities against climate shocks. US$178mn has been made available in this latest funding round, the largest amount for a single fiscal year. Eligible projects include infrastructure upgrades, building code enforcement, and risk mitigation planning. Applications for the loan program are open through September 30, 2025. (FEMA)

Current climate policies could lead to catastrophic societal and economic impacts, including a potential 50% drop in global GDP between 2070 and 2090, according to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ latest report Planetary Solvency — finding our balance with nature. The report highlights the urgent need for a risk-led approach to climate governance and introduces a Planetary Solvency risk dashboard to guide policymakers toward sustainable action. (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries)

The Investment Leaders Group, part of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), has published a new guide for investors looking to integrate climate resilience into their listed equity and debt investment processes. It offers ideas on climate-proofing existing portfolios and on engaging in activities to support “systemic resilience”. The guide emphasizes the benefits of integrating physical climate risk management at the start of the investment process, and taking an active role discussing with portfolio companies the ways in which adaptation and resilience can boost long-term value. (CISL)

Could LA Fires Put a California ‘Climate Superfund’ Back on the Table?

In the wake of the blazes scorching Los Angeles, climate advocacy groups are pushing California lawmakers to revive a ‘Climate Superfund’ Act in line with those passed by Vermont and New York last year.

“Big Oil knew fossil fuels were contributing to climate change decades ago, but engaged in a massive disinformation campaign to keep profiting from its pollution,” said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch, in a January 14 statement. “Now, Los Angeles is paying in homes, communities and lives lost. Polluters, not taxpayers, should pay for the cost of these climate disasters and the rebuilding that will follow. Governor Newsom and California’s elected officials must introduce and pass a robust Superfund Act that will make polluters pay for their pollution.”

While the immediate cause of all the fires is unclear, “hydroclimate whiplash” brought about by the warming climate likely contributed to their ferocity. This refers to rapid shifts from very wet periods to very dry ones. Wet periods contribute to the growth of burnable vegetation, while dry periods make it more likely to ignite.

Legislators tried to pass a Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act last year, but it died in a committee of the state senate. The law would have forced oil and gas companies to pay into a fund for adaptation and resilience measures in proportion to the greenhouse gas emissions their products were responsible for between 2000 and 2020. In an email statement to Daily Journal, a spokesperson for Senator Caroline Menjivar, the Democratic lawmaker who introduced the bill last year, said they are “looking at all options to address climate related catastrophic incidents.”

US Scraps Climate Reporting Rules for Contractors

The outgoing Biden administration withdrew rules that would have forced large US government contractors to disclose their climate-related risks and emission of planet-warming gases.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation: Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk, first proposed in 2022, would have obliged “major contractors” that do more than US$50mn in business with the US government to annually disclose the extreme weather risks — like floods, fires, and storms — and slow-onset climate events that could harm them, as well as greenhouse gas emissions data. “Significant contractors”, with more than US$7.5mn but less than US$50mn in federal contracts, would have had a lighter obligation to disclose some emissions data.

US agencies withdrew the rule on January 13 citing a lack of time under the Biden-Harris administration to finish the proposal. The rules could have covered some 5,700 companies, many in the defense and aerospace sectors. Sludge, a nonprofit publication on money and politics, reports that the proposed rule met with heavy opposition from the US Chamber of Commerce, Aerospace Industries Association, American Petroleum Institute, and other lobbying organizations, which criticized the supposed costs of complying with the disclosure requirements and raised concerns about impacts “on military readiness and national-security.”

The proposed rule itself estimated the cost of compliance at US$604mn in the first year of implementation, and US$442mn annually thereafter. If these costs were spread across the 5,700 in-scope companies equally, they would have averaged US$106,000 for the first year and US$77,700 for the following years. In practice, higher costs would have fallen on the largest and most complex contractors.

In Brief

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a new Federal Advisory Committee to guide the agency on making its climate data and services easier for the public to find and use. The committee was established in response to nationwide feedback from data users, who said expanding the reach and accessibility of its data is needed to meet growing adaptation and resilience needs. The committee has 18 members from sectors such as public health, education, and Tribal nations. (NOAA)

Cleaning up trash and managing floods may contribute to lower incidences of dengue fever, a viral infection spread by mosquito bites that is becoming more common and widespread from climate change. A Stanford-led study in Indonesia and Fiji found that regular trash removal significantly lowers dengue risk in children under 5, who are highly vulnerable to severe reinfections. It also showed that flood-prone communities had lower dengue rates, perhaps because the floodwaters washed out mosquito breeding sites. But when flooding happens in areas with lax trash management, the remaining floodwaters could give rise to more mosquitoes and elevate dengue transmission. Dengue cases have roughly doubled each year from 2021 through 2024. (Stanford Report)

A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine shows the American Medical Association’s political action committee (AMPAC) has bankrolled lawmakers who consistently vote against climate action — in seeming contradiction with the Association’s position that climate change is a public health crisis. Researchers found that during the 118th Congress, AMPAC donated over US$1mn to legislators, with more than US$400,000 going to those with anti-climate positions. (Journal of General Internal Medicine)

Geospatial Firm ICEYE Launches New Satellites

Earth observation company ICEYE launched four new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites last week, enhancing its ability to monitor and map climate-related catastrophes. The company has now launched 44 satellites into orbit for itself and its customers since 2018, according to a press release.

ICEYE’s satellites relay near real-time data on events on the Earth’s surface, regardless of weather conditions. The SAR data collection approach has satellites emit pulses of energy to the surface, which then capture information from the residue that is reflected back. It’s a technique that can yield insights on everything from the makeup of physical structures to soil conditions and land use changes.

ICEYE data is used by insurers to assess their exposure to natural catastrophes, helping streamline the claims process. It can also help governments and businesses in reacting to disasters like floods and fires faster, potentially reducing damage to infrastructure and supply chains.

One of the recently launched satellites was on behalf of Space42, a spacetech company based in the United Arab Emirates that specializes in using AI to draw insights from geospatial data. The new orbiter is intended to provide high-resolution, on-the-ground data on the Middle East and beyond — for purposes including “nation-wide preparedness for emergency response”. ICEYE says each of the new spacecraft have “established communication” and that “early routine operations are underway.”

In Brief

Helios Artificial Intelligence, a supplier of climate risk analytics for the agri-food industry, has launched a Climate Risk Supplier Assessment tool, designed to help consumer packaged goods and agri-food businesses improve their supply chain resilience. The tool offers tailored analyses of climate risks facing potential suppliers across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons, through features including heatmaps and risk scorecards. It also recommends actions users can take to diversify their sourcing and harden their supply chains to climate shocks. (Helios AI)

Hawaii has souped-up its fire and flood warning systems through a network of 100 advanced weather monitoring stations. The Hawaiʻi Mesonet initiative, developed by the University of Hawaiʻi and the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, collects real-time data on rainfall, temperature, wind, soil conditions, and more. This information can assist with disaster preparedness, and make planning easier for ranchers, water managers, and those working on ecosystem protection. The public can access data from the Mesonet via a web interface. (University of Hawaiʻi News)

RESEARCH

Global Risks Report 2025 (World Economic Forum)

How are weather and climate products and decision support systems used in wildland fire decision-making in the US southwest? (Weather, Climate, and Society)

Hydroclimate volatility on a warming Earth (Nature Reviews Earth & Environment)

A year marked by extreme precipitation and floods: Weather and climate extremes in 2024 (Advances in Atmospheric Sciences)

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor