Muni Issuers Neglect Climate Risk Disclosure, Trump Admin to Rescind Forest Conservation Rule, Wildfire-focused Insurance Brokerage, and More

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Municipal bond issuers in America’s most climate-exposed cities are not giving investors enough data to price their physical risk, a new report from Ceres finds. 

A third of 60 sampled bond offerings analyzed across the 20 highest-risk metros make no mention of climate or extreme weather, and most of those that do generally use boilerplate language lacking in decision-useful information. Just 12% disclose the financial metrics investors need to gauge risk management, while only 15% name who is accountable for oversight. Data from Cotality and Kestrel, which specializes in ESG research for the municipal bond market, was used to collate the report. 

Phoenix, Arizona, is a notable laggard. The city is expected to see the highest number of heatwave days among large metro areas — around 146 days annually — and is also contending with flood, wildfire, and drought risks. However, documentation for its 2024 general obligation bond offers scant coverage of heat and flood mitigation efforts, and does not include a comprehensive risk management strategy.

“There’s a certain amount of inertia to overcome. The market’s always done things a certain way, and now it's sort of being asked to change,” Monica Reid, Founder and CEO of Kestrel, told Climate Proof. “Everyone’s in a different place on the arc of change. There’s another thing that’s maybe a little bit more structural [too] — disclosing risk carries [legal] risk for municipal [issuers],” she added. 

Ceres also finds that most offerings recount past disasters rather than model future exposure, despite bonds running 20 to 30 years. In addition, similarly exposed issuers within the same metro area disclose at dramatically different levels, and resilience investments frequently go unmentioned.

Ceres recommends issuers fully adopt the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures framework to structure their bond offering documents, a standard that requires reporting of climate risk governance, strategy, and management. Municipalities should also name officials accountable for climate risk and set quantifiable metrics. Existing resilience investments should also appear in bond documents, the report says.

Governments and development banks meeting at the UN’s annual conference to combat desertification (UNCCD COP17) pledged US$1.3bn for land restoration and drought resilience, centered on a new US$1.2bn Rangelands Flagship Initiative — the largest mobilization for rangelands in the convention’s history. The UN estimates land restoration needs US$355bn annually through 2030, against US$77bn currently invested. (UNCCD)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched the FIELD Initiative in Ulaanbaatar on Monday, aiming to mobilize US$2bn by 2035 for land restoration and drought resilience across Asia and the Pacific. The international lender plans to deploy blended finance instruments, derisking structures, and capital-market products to draw private capital into degraded landscapes. Qatar Fund for Development, the Middle East Green Initiative, IUCN, the EU and Germany's BMZ have signaled interest as partners. (ADB)

Subnational governments worldwide are seeking US$33.51bn in adaptation financing, of which US$2.85bn is needed explicitly for nature-based projects, according to a new CDP analysis. Some 55% of cities, states, and regions have already deployed nature-based solutions like floodplain restoration and green infrastructure to combat extreme heat and flooding, while 70% of those with adaptation goals now prioritize such measures. CDP finds gaps between action and disclosure, with 80% of subnational authorities yet to align their plans with national adaptation strategies. The analysis covers 1,005 cities, states, and regions across 80 countries. (CDP)

The non-renewal of insurance policies in climate-risky areas is driving up foreclosures and dragging down local economies, according to new research from NYU and the University of British Columbia that tracked data from 23 major insurers covering 65% of the US market from 2018 to 2023. Insurers pull back faster after disasters strike, especially where they have thin financial cushions, face state limits on price increases, or struggle to predict climate losses. Using statistical methods, the researchers found coverage losses translate directly into foreclosures, with effects worse in states with fewer insurance options at hand or without an insurer-of-last-resort. Foreclosures, in turn, cause home values to fall, with cheaper homes seeing the deepest declines. The researchers argue that keeping homes insurable, not just keeping premiums affordable, now belongs at the center of climate adaptation policy. (SSRN)

Australian insurer NRMA launched a second round of Climate-Smart Innovation Grants, making a total of A$500,000 (US$358,000) available for early-stage adaptation and resilience solutions. The program is offering four A$100,000 (US$72,000) growth grants for scale-ready tools and four A$25,000 (US$18,000) grants for pilot ventures. The grants are being delivered in partnership with Climate Salad, a climate tech company network. Applications are open until September 9. (NRMA)

Unchecked climate impacts could cost London as much as £36bn (US$49bn) a year — roughly 3% of the capital’s economy — by the 2050s, according to a technical report from the Mayor of London and London Councils. The projected annual toll spans lost productivity, healthcare strain, business disruption, and infrastructure damage, and builds on losses already suffered by the capital. The 2022 heatwaves cost London an estimated £1.5bn (US$2bn) alone, around 90% of this from lost productivity. The report underpins Heat Ready London, the city’s first dedicated heat adaptation plan. (London City Hall)

Seychelles has launched a US$10.5mn initiative with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to integrate natural capital in national development and climate resilience strategy. The initiative is part of the GEF-8 Blue and Green Islands Integrated Programme, a US$135.6mn global facility backing 15 small island developing states. The structure channels grant capital toward governance reform and nature-based solutions rather than debt, contrasting with the debt-for-nature conversions Seychelles pioneered a decade ago. (UNDP)

The US Forest Service moved to repeal the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule last Tuesday, which would open some 45 million acres of national forest to road construction and logging.

The agency framed the move as essential to wildfire risk reduction, claiming that while 40% of roadless areas carry high or very high fire hazard, only 5% have received fuel treatments and vegetation removal since 2014. 

“Our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction. Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions – overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease – turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a statement. “For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities.”

The ‘Roadless Rule’, enacted in 2001, was introduced to preserve America’s wild forests. Republican lawmakers have long argued the regulation impedes economic development and restricts America’s timber trade — which President Trump has vowed to strengthen.

Environmentalists railed against the proposed rule change. Non-profit Earthjustice argued that constructing roads through pristine forests would increase, rather than reduce, wildfire risks, since roads bring people — the leading cause of wildfires. 

“Scientists, wildland firefighters, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have fiercely opposed this attack on our public lands. Earthjustice has successfully defended the Roadless Rule for a quarter century, and we are not going to stop now,” said Abigail Dillen, the organization’s president.

A public comment period on the proposed rule rescission closes September 21. 

The US Interior Department cut the amount of water Arizona, California, and Nevada can draw from the Colorado River by roughly a quarter amid record-low reservoir levels at Lakes Powell and Mead – the country’s largest reservoirs. The Friday announcement cements voluntary reductions the three states agreed to earlier this year before the expiry of the existing river management rules. Arizona swallows the largest cut of around one-third of its current share. The state will lean on banked groundwater reserves to make up the difference. States in the Colorado River’s upper basin – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – avoided mandatory cuts. (New York Times)

Extreme weather damaged the communities of 38% of Americans in the past year, a Gallup poll of 6,732 adults for the Walton Family Foundation found. Residents in hard-hit areas are markedly less confident they can shape their own future — 62% versus 71% in unaffected communities. Of those polled whose communities were affected, 57% say they are “very” or “somewhat” worried that repeat extreme weather events will harm their town or city in the next year. (Walton Family Foundation)

California has adopted ‘Zone Zero’ defensible space regulations, requiring residents in high fire‑risk areas to clear combustible material from the first five feet around their homes — the area where wind‑blown embers most often ignite properties. Approved by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection last Wednesday, the rules are estimated to apply to some 1.75 million homes, about 10% of the state’s housing stock. New builds have to adopt the standard right away, while existing properties have five years in which to comply. (California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection)

German lawmakers are gridlocked in an effort to write climate adaptation into the nation’s constitution, a move that could make it easier for the federal government to fund resilience. Ministers in the country’s governing coalition are divided on the amendment, with leaders from the center-left SPD in favor and those from the center-right CDU opposed, citing potential costs. Any change to the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, a high threshold that the government cannot meet on its own. (Euractiv)

Belgium’s government plans to roll out a new national resilience plan after its largest wildfire in over a century burned more than 3,000 hectares of peatland and pine forest in the High Fens nature reserve. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin told parliament climate risks, particularly wildfires, will feature prominently in the plan, and pledged additional resources for civil protection. (Euractiv)

New Zealand has moved to shield fossil fuel companies from lawsuits over their emissions. Passed 67-53 last week, the Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill — supported by the governing center-right National Party – prevents all current and future civil claims for climate loss or harm under tort law. Unusually, the law reaches back to cases already before the courts — overriding a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that Māori activist Michael Smith’s claim against six major emitters, including Fonterra, could proceed to trial. Paul Goldsmith, the minister backing the legislation, said the law would give businesses “certainty around their climate change obligations.” (RNZ)

RockRose Risk, a wildfire-focused insurance brokerage, has raised US$12.5mn in a Series A to create an all-in-one platform for analyzing properties, providing home-hardening measures, and delivering coverage that accounts for fire-proofing efforts.

The San Francisco-based company will use the capital to buy up tree-trimming and roofing firms that can be mobilized to help customers make their homes more resilient.

"By combining on-the-ground property assessments, mitigation expertise, and proprietary technology, we’ve driven fundamentally better insurance outcomes,” said Andrew Engler, Co-founder and CEO of RockRose Risk. “Our next step is to get insurance to operate within holistic systems, just as nature does. Wildfires don’t obey the rules of financial modeling or zip codes alone. We’re making insurance adapt to the rules of a new game: that of a rapidly changing planet.”

The company already serves HOAs, hotel groups, wineries and municipal portfolios, and recently expanded into California homeowners insurance — its first residential push after building a commercial base. It also introduced Rosebud, an autonomous property-assessment rover. 

The raise was co-led by Crosslink Capital and Congruent Ventures, with participation from Nuveen Real Estate.

Satellite manufacturer Muon Space raised a US$250mn Series C round to speed its construction of Earth Observation constellations for climate risk, environmental monitoring, and defense missions. Earlier this year, the company deployed the first three orbital devices of the FireSat constellation, a wildfire-monitoring satellite array built with Earth Fire Alliance and Google.org, which delivers near-real-time fire detection data to emergency responders and land managers. (Muon Space)

Ohio-based Sonic Fire Tech raised a US$15mn funding round to support its sound-powered firefighting devices. The company’s technology produces infrasonic waves of roughly 20Hz through ceiling-mounted PVC pipes to smother flames without the water or chemical damage typical of conventional systems. It plans to roll out its system to commercial buildings, kitchens, and homes, with proceeds from the fundraise going towards hiring and testing needed for National Fire Protection Association approval. The round was backed by The O.H.I.O. Fund and Khosla Ventures. (TechCrunch)

Computomics GmbH raised €6.3mn (US$7.4mn) in a Series B round led by Convent Capital Agri Food Fund to scale its machine-learning platform for predicting crop genotype performance under future climate conditions. (Computomics)

UK-based Oshen raised US$5mn to scale production of its autonomous ocean-monitoring robots. The devices, powered by wind and solar energy, are able to operate for months without oversight, beaming wind, tide, and other data to users via satellite. Lunar Ventures led the round, with participation from AlbionVC, Twin Track, Concept Ventures, and others. (Tech Funding News)

China’s meteorological agency pledged a nationwide climate service system by 2030 that would leverage world-class capability in AI-driven prediction and disaster risk assessment. The plan sets 19 priority tasks spanning Earth system monitoring, sector-specific forecasting and institutional reforms to improve service delivery. National bodies will develop Earth system models and AI prediction tools while provincial and local offices tailor risk assessments and warnings to their regions. A new data-sharing network will sync updates instantly across all administrative levels. China already runs drone-based typhoon observation and AI early-warning models, technology it says has strengthened disaster preparedness beyond its borders. (Xinhua)

A climate impact taxonomy operationalizing IPCC physical driver and risk concepts (Nature Climate Change)

Long-horizon resilience of power systems under climate change (Nature)

Remote sensing during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires (AGU Advances)

Climate-induced severe water scarcity events as harbingers of global wheat price (Earth’s Future)

Pervasive building height thresholds for urban heat response and implications for climate mitigation (Earth’s Future)

Future projections of burned area in Europe highlight the importance of human action (Global Change Biology)

Global estimation of bankfull river discharge reveals distinct flood recurrences across climate zones (Nature Communications)

The effect of natural climate variability on future vector-borne disease suitability: A mathematical modelling study (PLOS Climate)

The impact of climate risk vulnerability on dividend policy. Empirical evidence for European firms (Business Strategy and the Environment)

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor