De-Abstracting Climate Change Richard Ling and Cat Conran Authors: Richard Ling is a graduating senior majoring in Systems Engineering and Environmental Science in the Vagelos Integrated Program for Energy Research (VIPER). Cat Conran graduated from Penn in 2019 with a major in Anthropology and minors in Classical Studies, Archaeological Science,…Read More
Climate Center
Wildfires and Recovery: FEMA’s Individual Assistance funding provides important support—but unfunded damages remain
April 16, 2020 Erin St. Peter As California begins its wildfire season, the question of how we pay for the damages and assist households and communities with their recovery becomes ever more critical. Wildfires are increasing in size and impact across the United States. According to data from the National…Read More
Leveraging Behavioral Science to Close the Flood Insurance Gap
March 30, 2020 Jacob Bradt Despite the fact that flood insurance is critical to weathering potentially high-cost disaster events, many households fail to purchase coverage. In the United States, the take-up rate (i.e., the proportion of households purchasing insurance) for flood insurance available through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)…Read More
A Token Design for Decentralized Insurance on the Blockchain
March 6, 2020 Alexander Braun and Niklas Haeusle Imagine you are a smallholder paddy field farmer. Your crops are vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods or droughts, even more so in the face of climate change. Since your entire existence depends on the integrity of your crops, you would…Read More
Flood Insurance in the US: Lessons from FEMA’s Recent Data Release (Part II)
January 22, 2020 Jacob Bradt and Carolyn Kousky This is part II of a two-part series. Out of all natural disasters in the United States, floods are responsible for the most damage. To ensure sufficient funding for repair and rebuilding post-flood, households need flood insurance. At the beginning of last…Read More
Flood Insurance in the US: Lessons from FEMA’s Recent Data Release (Part I)
January 14, 2020 Jacob Bradt and Carolyn Kousky This is part I of a two-part series. Out of all natural disasters in the United States, floods are responsible for the most damage. To ensure sufficient funding for repair and rebuilding post-flood, households need flood insurance. While there is a small,…Read More
Climate-Related Muni Bond Risk: A Q&A with Breckinridge Capital Advisors
January 8, 2020 Erin St. Peter There is increasing apprehension about the potential impacts of climate change on municipal bond markets. As highlighted in a recent Barron’s article, BlackRock cautions that within ten years, 15% of the S&P National Municipal Bonds Index will come from cities and towns estimated to…Read More
Characteristics of Resilient Cities and the Positive Impacts of Building Codes
November 26, 2019 Kevin M. Simmons and Jeffrey Czajkowski Hurricanes and tornadoes are newsworthy because these storms have the potential to disrupt communities with casualties and high economic losses. Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that natural disasters have caused more than $1.7 trillion in losses…Read More
Hack-for-Resilience at PennApps XX
September 18, 2019 This September, the University of Pennsylvania hosted PennApps XX – the 20th iteration of the nation’s very first college hackathon. More than 1,000 students made their way to Penn’s Engineering Campus for the weekend to develop innovative technology-based solutions to real-world problems. This year, the Wharton Risk…Read More
Mitigate Housing and Climate Risk through a Green New Deal for Housing
Idea #30 Mitigate Housing and Climate Risk through a Green New Deal for Housing by Daniel Aldana Cohen The risks of social inequality and climate change are converging in American homes—for those lucky enough to have them. By one estimate, the country has a shortage of almost 7.5 million homes…Read More