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Adaptation

Washington state and a wave.
Adaptation

Now Is a Really Bad Time for the Really Big One

Job and funding cuts to federal emergency programs have the nation’s tsunami response experts, shall we say, concerned.

Climate

AM Briefing: U.S. Abandons a Key Climate Financing Coalition

On energy transition funds, disappearing butterflies, and Tesla’s stock slump

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Adaptation

AM Briefing: Disaster Aid Gets Downsized

On job cuts, long-term planning, and quarterly profits.

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Technology

As Disasters Strike, Investors Turn to Adaptation Tech

The more Hurricanes Helene and Milton we get, the harder it is to ignore the need.

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A substation and water.

Utilities Are Planning for the Wrong Kind of Hurricane

High winds down power lines. But high waters flood substations — and those are much harder to fix.

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A hundred dollar bill and wind turbines.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Decarbonizing the global economy requires replacing stuff that emits carbon dioxide with stuff that doesn’t. At its heart, this challenge is financial: All these high-emitting assets ― coal plants, gas stoves, airplanes ― were at some point financed into existence by investors seeking returns. Climate policymakers’ greatest challenge is not just figuring out how to phase out existing, dangerous capital investments in fossil fuels, but also how to finance into existence new, climate-stabilizing clean assets.

This is all much easier said than done. Central banks’ high interest rates are strangling clean energy and adaptation infrastructure investments in the United States and abroad. Recent struggles to develop offshore wind and small modular nuclear reactors in the United States exemplify how deeply hesitant private developers are to commit to long-term capital expenditures. Investors view these projects as too risky, their expected profits too low to meet their minimum return thresholds. Absent policies to stabilize supply chains and other factors affecting the financing environment for clean energy, the United States ― to say nothing about the rest of the world ― won’t meet its climate goals.

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Economy

Maybe Wooden Skyscrapers Aren’t As Climate-Friendly As We Think

New research casts doubt on a popular climate solution.

Timber smokestacks.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

A lengthy report from the nonprofit World Resources Institute released Thursday warns of a “growing land squeeze” where increasing demand for food, housing, and wood is threatening the world’s prospects for tackling climate change. Adding to the competition, the authors argue, is something that’s been broadly advertised as a climate solution — the use of mass timber.

Architects and sustainable building advocates have been spreading the gospel about mass timber for at least a decade. The idea is that replacing carbon-intensive materials like concrete and steel with wood can reduce the climate impact of building stuff. Forests suck up carbon from the atmosphere, and using that timber in the built environment is one way to lock it away more permanently.

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