Market forces

This blog was authored by Francisco Pinto and Rodrigo Bórquez, economists of the Climate Action Teams (CAT) initiative, and by Environmental Defense Fund economist Luis Fernández Intriago. Source: Climate Action Teams Reducing emissions is imperative to address climate change. The mechanisms established in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement can serve as vital tools in […]

This blog was co-authored by Maureen Lackner (Senior Manager of Economics and Policy Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund) and Lauren Beatty (High Meadows Postdoctoral Economics Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund). Climate change is a pressing issue, partly fueled by methane: a greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of today’s global warming. Reducing methane emissions will slow down […]

Climate change-driven events—like heat waves, droughts, floods, and fires—cause damage to communities’ and individuals’ health and safety. But these events also threaten the financial well-being of communities across the U.S. through their impact on markets and local economies. These risks are increasingly visible in the housing and mortgage markets.  In this three-part series, we’ll be […]

Climate change-driven events—like heat waves, droughts, floods, and fires—cause damage to communities’ and individuals’ health and safety. But these events also threaten the financial well-being of communities across the U.S. through their impact on markets and local economies. These risks are increasingly visible in the housing and mortgage markets. In this three-part series, we’ll be […]

Climate change-driven events—like heat waves, droughts, floods, and fires—cause damage to communities’ and individuals’ health and safety. But these events also threaten the financial well-being of communities across the U.S. through their impact on markets and local economies. Nowhere is this more visible recently than in the property insurance market.  In this three-part series, we’ll […]

New EDF Economics Discussion Paper reviews the instrument options available to policy makers to address methane emissions from the coal sector during the coal phase-out. This paper complements previous EDF research focusing on instruments options for methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.   Coal use is one of the major sources of CO2 globally, […]

New York City, along with the rest of the mid-Atlantic, is seeing more extreme rainfall events that overwhelm local infrastructure and lead to localized, but often severe, flooding. These flash floods can impose myriad costs on residents from lost income when businesses are interrupted to higher commuting costs when transit is flooded to the need […]

As the effects of climate change continue to unfold, all communities across the U.S. will face a wider range of risks. However, some communities will be more affected by those risks due to greater exposure and limited ability to recover from their effects.   For two neighboring communities in Detroit, the U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index, a […]

Last Monday, Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University unveiled the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI), a robust, data-driven mapping tool built to highlight how drivers of cumulative vulnerability and exposure to climate impacts disadvantage communities across the U.S. Combining 184 sets of data, or “indicators,” to rank more than 70,000 U.S. Census tracts, the CVI […]

New Zealand is currently reconsidering how its forestry sector can contribute to meeting its long-term climate change targets, and what this means for its emissions trading scheme (NZ ETS). A recent paper from researchers at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research and the Environmental Defense Fund sheds light on New Zealand’s innovative treatment of forestry […]

This blog was authored by Julia Ilhardt, former High Meadows Fellow, Global Climate Cooperation. It was originally published on EDF’s Climate411 blog channel. Read the full post here.  At the end of last year, 196 nations agreed to the historic Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes the goal to protect 30% of land and sea area […]

The climate crisis requires not only urgent action, underpinned by a robust framework of proven economic-driven solutions to effectively address its multifaceted challenges. Given the increasing urgency, we need economists at the forefront, conducting rigorous research and informing policy decisions. Recognizing this critical need, the Economics team at EDF is dedicated to nurturing economists who […]

This blog was authored by Environmental Defense Fund economists, Karina French and Carolyn Kousky. See their report here.  South Carolina is no stranger to the devastating effects of extreme flooding, with hurricanes like Matthew and Florence leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. As the state faces escalating flood risk due to climate changes […]

This blog was co-authored by Dr. Grace Tee Lewis, Senior Health Scientist, Climate and Health Last month, Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University published a new study that found all states in the U.S. are at risk from the effects of climate change, particularly neighborhoods experiencing disproportionate environmental harms and risks, health disparities and […]

This blog was authored by Environmental Defense Fund economist Luis Fernández Intriago and Universidad de Los Andes professors Jorge García López and Julián Gómez Gil. The saying “Nothing about us without us” is widely used among Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to emphasize the importance of involving them in policies that govern their territories and […]

This blog was authored by Environmental Defense Fund economist, Carolyn Kousky. Facing $150 billion annually in direct costs from climate-related disasters, the current system of disaster recovery in the U.S. is failing many families and communities. Most households struggle with timely access to sufficient financial support for the wide-ranging expenses disasters impose. And without adequate […]

This blog was authored by Environmental Defense Fund economists Karina French and Carolyn Kousky. See their report: Inclusive Insurance for Climate-Related Disasters: A U.S. Roadmap.   Over the past year, the U.S. has seen yet again how climate-driven disasters threaten lives and livelihoods, from the devastating hurricanes, Ian and Fiona, in Florida and Puerto Rico […]

This blog was coauthored by Maureen Lackner, Huong Nguyen and Aaron Wolfe. New EDF Economics Discussion Paper describes the instrument options available to policy makers in both oil and gas producing as well as importing countries. Policy makers around the world are increasingly recognizing the need to drastically reduce methane emissions in parallel with carbon […]

Dr. Beia Spiller is a Fellow and Transportation Program Director at Resources for the Future. She had previously served as a Lead Senior Economist at EDF. This post is the final in a series dedicated to the future of the electricity sector and new scholarship supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Each post is […]

This blog was co-authored by Kate Roberts. This week we published a new study that combines locations of active oil and gas wells with census tract data in a way that helps us better understand the characteristics of the communities living near them. Our findings support what environmental justice groups have been voicing for years: […]