Climate Center

February 11, 2021 Monica Volodarsky Monica is a senior at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania studying Finance and Social Impact & Responsibility. She is passionate about utilizing private-public partnerships to catalyze ecosystem-oriented positive social change.  How does one tree create a dip in America’s GDP? It falls…Read More

January 27th, 2021 Zoë Linder-Baptie As the sixth largest city in the United States, Philadelphia faces a myriad of risks due to its major transportation corridors, including two rivers, and the nearby technological hazard of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery. We also face extreme weather on a regular basis.…Read More

January 13, 2021 Carolyn Kousky This blog post originally appeared in The Hill's Changing America as an Opinion Piece on December 31, 2020. Healthy ecosystems support society with an array of important goods and services. They provide recreational opportunities, sequester carbon, purify our air and water, combat urban heat and increase…Read More

November 19, 2020 Carolyn Kousky and Ben Thomas Municipalities are facing increasing financial and operational pressure from the impacts of climate change. As mentioned in a previous Risk Center Q&A with Breckenridge Capital Advisors, climate risks may impact the creditworthiness of municipalities in a way not currently being accounted for.…Read More

Originally published on July 24, 2020 on EY Mary Cline, Jon Shames, and Courtney Rickert McCaffrey   The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. People, industries and governments have had to adjust to the new reality, leaders prepared to manage the risks that emerge will gain a competitive edge for their…Read More

October 12, 2020 This blogpost originally appeared on Knowledge@Wharton on October 5, 2020. Read the full K@W article or listen to the podcast episode. For the poor, like Yamileth Centeno, problems compound when disaster strikes. The electrician from Lake Charles, Louisiana, lost her job in the pandemic and was living…Read More

October 8, 2020 Derek Nong Derek is an undergraduate in the Vagelos Integrated Program for Energy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Electrical Engineering and Physics. In order to minimize wildfire risk, California’s electric utilities will sometimes de-energize lines in high risk conditions. Called Public Safety Power Shutoffs…Read More

October 1, 2020 Erin St. Peter Melting sea ice is opening up the potential for increased maritime traffic in the Arctic—presenting challenges for insurers and highlighting tensions between state interests and environmental concerns. Arctic sea ice is shrinking rapidly. The annual minimum size of Arctic sea ice has been declining…Read More

September 17, 2020 James Ballot,  Senior Advisor, Strategic Communications, Triple-I This post originally appeared on September 15th, 2020 on the Insurance Information Institute's blog. From Friday, September 11 to Sunday, September 13, the third annual the Hack-for-Resilience competition (“H4R”) was hosted by Wharton Risk Center and the Insurance Information Institute’s (“Triple-I”) Resilience Accelerator as part of the PennAppsXXI…Read More

September 15, 2020 Carolyn Kousky and Carlos Martin This blog post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in The Hill on August 31, 2020. Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in western Louisiana and eastern Texas Thursday morning, leaving yet-to-be counted damage and despair in its wake. As…Read More