Climate-Health Threats to Global Economy, Vermont Climate Superfund Under Siege, Earthmover Raise, and More

The world is hurtling toward a climate-driven health crisis that could slash US$12.5trn from the global economy and cause 14.5 million excess deaths by mid-century, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in a report released last Thursday. 

Hunger, overheating, and insect-borne diseases are all projected to spike as temperatures climb and extreme weather events escalate. Climate change is also expected to erode worker productivity and lead to labor shortages across health systems. Under a probable climate trajectory from 2025 to 2050, the health and healthcare sector is expected to suffer at least US$200bn in worker availability losses and an additional US$1.1trn treatment burden.

These potential losses dwarf the current funding being put aside for adaptation. The WEF claims less than 5% of global adaptation finance currently targets health, “a dangerous gap” that nonetheless also represents an opportunity for the private sector to create value through innovations that protect health workers, harden supply chains, and help scale preventative care. 

The report focuses on four climate-exposed sectors that contribute to human health — food and agriculture, the built environment, healthcare, and insurance. Food and agriculture alone could see US$740bn in output losses as rising heat, malnutrition, and disease weigh on the one billion farmers and other agricultural workers worldwide. Construction and healthcare workers are similarly vulnerable, with heatwaves and extreme weather driving down labor availability and straining care systems.

The report recommends business leaders in affected sectors prioritize three strategic actions to promote climate-health resilience: assess climate-health exposure across operations and supply chains; zero in on risks that have the highest potential impact on health and business continuity; and use data and early-warning systems to anticipate health impacts.

This summer dealt Europe an economic blow worth €43bn (US$50.7bn) in lost regional output, according to a new study. Droughts, floods, and heatwaves hit a quarter of EU regions in recent months, disrupting supply chains and suppressing productivity. Southern Europe — especially Spain, France, and Italy — bore the brunt, with regions like Andalusia and Lombardy seeing losses exceeding 2% of GVA (gross value added). Losses are projected to triple to €126bn (US$148.5bn) by 2029 as climate shocks worsen. The authors further warn that while adaptation is essential, it will come at a high cost and may divert investment from growth. (SSRN)

Over half of companies are not using cost-benefit analysis to make the business case for adaptation investments, according to a survey from Marsh McLennan, the insurance brokerage and risk advisor. The findings — drawn from over 130 risk managers worldwide — also show that while 78% of firms are assessing future climate impacts, just 38% go beyond qualitative analysis. Moreover, many organizations appear to be lowballing system-level risks, including critical infrastructure dependencies and supplier vulnerabilities. Engineering upgrades and business continuity planning are the most widely adopted resilience measures. (Marsh McLennan)

Vietnam says it will need up to US$92bn through 2030 to shield its economy and people from escalating climate risks. The country’s updated National Adaptation Plan (NAP), submitted to the UNFCCC earlier this month, addresses key climate risks facing the country, including rising seas, volatile rainfall, and worsening storms battering its long coastline and densely populated deltas. (VnExpress)

Massachusetts has awarded nearly US$29mn to climate adaptation projects in 54 communities through the state’s Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Action Grant program. The funding will support a wide array of on-the-ground initiatives, including shaded park retrofits, flood-buffering wetland protections, and wildfire evacuation routes. The MVP grants feed into the Governor Healey’s broader Mass Ready Act, a proposed US$315mn investment in climate readiness. (Mass.gov)

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) ratcheted up its legal battle against Vermont’s first-in-the-nation Climate Superfund last Monday by asking a court to invalidate the statute authorizing its creation.

The Superfund law, passed last year, could raise billions from oil and gas majors to finance adaptation projects. In its filing, the DOJ said the statute was “unconstitutional”, claiming it usurps the federal government’s jurisdiction over greenhouse gas emissions and national and international energy policy.

Vermont, backed by environmental non-profits, says the law fits squarely with the constitution and is essential for raising revenues to protect people and infrastructure in the state. In an interview with Climate Proof last week, Kate Sinding Daly, Senior Vice President for Law and Policy at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), an organization party to the suit, said the state “clearly has the authority to take measures to protect their citizens.” 

The DOJ’s filing is part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to shield fossil fuel companies from state-level climate accountability. Since May, the department has also challenged New York, Hawaii, and Michigan over their climate policies.

A coalition of US non-profits, Tribal organizations, and local governments is appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to overturn the cancellation of US$3bn in federal awards for climate mitigation and resilience. The litigants were slated to receive funds under the Environmental and Climate Justice Program, a grant initiative established under then-President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to support frontline communities in addressing climate challenges. The Environmental Protection Agency abruptly terminated the grants earlier this year. Represented by Earthjustice and other legal advocates, the plaintiffs argue that the EPA’s move defies Congressional intent and cuts off critical funding for projects aimed at climate resilience, pollution reduction, and community empowerment. (EarthJustice)

The US House Oversight Committee conducted a hearing last Tuesday on weather modification and geoengineering technologies, which are being explored as a means to advance climate adaptation. Convened by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hearing — titled “Playing God with the Weather - a Disastrous Forecast” — grouped a wide range of legitimate geoengineering approaches with debunked and outlandish conspiracies, underlining the growing opposition to these techniques from segments of the MAGA right. Greene introduced legislation this summer that would “prohibit weather modification within the United States.” (Wired)

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) head Bill Pulte said on the social media platform X last Friday that the organization had withdrawn from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, a global coalition of central banks, supervisors, and financial regulators dedicated to addressing climate risks and driving the low-carbon transition. (X)

Australia’s new National Adaptation Plan pledges to embed climate resilience into the National Construction Code, despite the Labor government having paused most code changes last month to accelerate housing supply. The plan calls for the Australian Building Codes Board to be handed “a clear mandate” to set out new requirements that integrate climate data into construction standards, though it’s unclear if any changes will bypass the current freeze. (Australian Financial Review)

Germany’s water utilities are pressing for the rapid rollout of adaptation measures to head off mounting conflicts over water use. In a joint call to action published last Thursday, major associations including BDEW, VKU, DVGW, and DWA warned that worsening extreme weather events are straining water systems and intensifying competition between public supply, industry, and agriculture. In order to secure future supplies, they say the government should invest in climate-resilient connection infrastructure, modernized rain water management, and nature-based solutions such as moorland restoration. (Clean Energy Wire)

New York-based climate tech startup Earthmover has raised US$7.2mn in seed funding to build up its platform for managing multidimensional weather and climate data. 

With investments from VC firms Lowercarbon Capital and Costanoa Ventures — together with GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner — the company now has the firepower to scale its ambitions. 

At the core of Earthmover’s offering is a mastery of tensors: multidimensional arrays that are better suited to representing geospatial and climate data than traditional tabular formats. Its open-source tech speeds up and streamlines climate and weather data workflows, from basic data exploration tasks to full-bore AI/ML model development. Icechunk is the company’s flagship offering to date: a cloud-native transactional tensor storage engine.

“Recently it feels like we’ve cracked the code,” wrote Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Abernathey in a press release announcing the raise. “We are onboarding new startup customers on a weekly basis while successfully navigating enterprise and government procurement. We’re also thrilled to see Icechunk being implemented at major public-sector agencies such as NASA.”

Californian utility PG&E has invited 57 start-ups and research groups to its 2025 Pitch Fest in Oakland later this September, where it will decide how to allocate up to US$25mn in support of climate resilience and grid innovations. Founders and academics will pitch solutions across seven key areas including wildfire and forest management, distributed energy resources, customer resilience, and operational cost savings. (PG&E)

The city of Antioch, California, turned on its new desalination facility for the first time last week, with the aim of supplying up to six million gallons of drinking water to residents each day. The US$70mn project is expected to meet 40% of Antioch’s water needs by end-2025, increasing the city’s water security amidst worsening climate volatility. (California Department of Water Resources)

Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change (Nature Climate Change)

Market-based instruments to fund nature-based solutions for flood risk management can disproportionately benefit affluent areas (Communications Earth & Environment)

Emerging practice for integrating and implementing early warning systems and climate information services in NAPs and NDCs (C2ES)

Fostering interoperability of data, models, communication, and governance for disaster resilience through transdisciplinary knowledge co-production (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences)

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor