Climate 411

The author of today’s post, Jeffery Greenblatt, Ph.D., is a scientist at Environmental Defense specializing in low-carbon energy technologies.

Consumers and businesses alike complain that it takes years for savings on energy bills to repay the up-front costs of energy efficiency. No longer. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, lenders have discovered what energy analysts have known for years: loans for energy efficiency improvements are low-risk, because borrowers can "finance" these loans through lower energy payments.

Energy-efficient mortgages have been available for some time, but lenders didn’t promote them, and customers resisted the extra inspections and paperwork. Now to get home buyers interested, banks are offering incentives of $500-$1000 off closing costs. Everybody wins: consumers save money, lenders make a profit, and the atmosphere enjoys lower carbon emissions.

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The author of today’s post, Michael Oppenheimer, Ph.D., is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. He also serves as science advisor to Environmental Defense.

"In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased" by rising sea levels, says an Associated Press news story from last week. In the map of Florida below, some of the most vulnerable areas – which include Cape Canaveral and a big chunk of Everglades National Park – are shown in red.

Source: University of Arizona’s Department of Geosciences.

It’s not just historic sites that are threatened, but people. Rising sea levels could displace millions in heavily populated coastal areas across the world.

Why are sea levels rising, and what do scientists project for the future?

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The author of today’s post, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Why should your company take action to fight global warming? Shareholders want progress, investors are calling for transparency, national policy is coming, and waiting to act will be costly.

To help you get started, Environmental Defense has developed a hierarchy of effective actions called the "Four Cs" – conserve energy, convert to lower carbon energy, choose quality offsets, and call for action.

Here are the details.

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The author of today’s post, Derek Walker, is the Deputy Director of the State Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense.

We need federal legislation to solve the global warming crisis – there’s no doubt about that. But state and local governments don’t have to sit around waiting while the federal debate goes on – and many aren’t. States and cities across the country are taking the lead on a wide range of climate issues, demonstrating the political courage and policy innovation needed to protect our planet from the most dangerous effects of global warming.

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The author of today’s post, Martha Roberts, is an economist at Environmental Defense. She contributed to the coalition’s petition to the SEC.

Climate change can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line – just ask any insurance company. But as the Washington Post points out, it’s not only insurance companies that are affected. Climate change can cause physical damage to facilities, increase costs of regulatory compliance, and (on the plus side) create new markets for climate-friendly products – to give just a few examples.

So today, Environmental Defense and a broad coalition of investors, state treasurers, and other environmental groups petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to clarify that existing regulations require publicly traded companies to assess and disclose their financial risk from climate change. Altogether, the 22 petitioners manage more than $1.5 trillion in assets. You can find full documentation, including the petition, on our Web site.

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Today’s post is by Bill Chameides, Ph.D., science adviser to Environmental Defense and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2002, the Bush Administration set up the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP). Yesterday, an independent panel released a report through the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) evaluating how that program has done. The headline in the New York Times sums it up: “Panel Faults Emphasis of U.S. Climate Program.”

When I look at the work of the CCSP over the last five years, here’s what stands out.

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