What Fannie Mae's climate official is working on - E&E News by POLITICO
What Fannie Mae's climate official is working on - E&E News by POLITICO
Timothy Judge’s favorite term when he talks about climate change is “price signals.”
The phrase has become a cornerstone of global climate policy as nations give tax incentives to cut the price of electric vehicles and impose tax penalties on carbon emissions.
Judge, the chief climate officer at Fannie Mae, is focused on one potential price signal with uncertain effects: Do homes lose value if people know the property is at risk of being flooded?
The question is at the core of a national debate over whether states should require home sellers to disclose their property’s flood history and inundation risk to potential buyers.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”