A new report published by the U.S. Department of Treasury - The Impact of Climate Change on American Household Finances, - show climate change creates significant financial risks for households, especially through higher costs related to natural disasters and increased insurance premiums.  Indeed, in 2022, climate and weather disasters in the U.S. cost over $176 billion, making it the third most expensive year on record.

In short, households face financial strain from rising expenses and income pressures. Despite these challenges, there are opportunities for policymakers, communities, and households to reduce the financial impact of climate-related risks. 💡

A new study published in the AEA's Applied Economics journal introduces a new way to identify when subsidies (i.e. financial support) are being wasted. It applies this method to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is the world's biggest program for carbon offsets (credits that companies buy to reduce their carbon emissions). The study specifically looks at over 1,000 wind farms in India.

What do we know?  Well, the findings suggest that more than half (52%) of the carbon offsets were given to wind farm projects that would have been built even without the subsidies. This means that the subsidies didn't help create new projects or reduce emissions as intended. In fact, the researchers found that by selling these unnecessary carbon offsets to companies that pollute, it actually ended up increasing global carbon dioxide emissions.  In simple terms, the research shows that a lot of money intended to fight climate change was misused, and it ended up making the problem worse.  Read Journal Article 

Coming soon.