Youth Will (Must) Save The Day: United Nations COP26 Youth Marathon

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Most every year since 1995, the world’s nations have been meeting to discuss our global climate crisis at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP). This year’s session is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, as the United Kingdom hosts the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) until November 12th. And, as part of this year’s event, I was honored to moderate the North America portion of the United Nations Climate & Oceans COP26 24 Hour Youth Marathon this past Saturday.
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The Youth Marathon was a day-long event that included three groups of different sessions across three time zones. It was also an incredible opportunity to watch the world’s youth shine as we focused on what I believe is the most important issue today’s young people will face in their lives here on earth.
Satellite events like the one I moderated are intertwined with the more public events that you see covered in the mass media where many world leaders (this year including the United State’s President Joe Biden) give speeches and perform other ceremonial type tasks. At its core, the key focus of the COP meetings is to monitor and shape the status of climate oriented policies being taken around the world to reduce carbon pollution, as well as to review the emission inventories submitted by Parties (the various nations). This information is then used to assess and measure the progress the Parties are making in support of the Convention’s goals. COP21, for example, took place in Paris and it’s not uncommon to hear mention of the “Paris Agreement” which relates to the goals the various nations set at that conference in 2015. Chances are good that you will hear about various Glasgow Agreements in the weeks and years to come that sprout from this month’s meetings (I sure hope that’s the case).
An important element of this year’s event, COP26, is strengthening society’s ability to adapt to climate change impacts globally, as well as mobilizing financing and implementing solutions that have been outlined in previous COP conferences. As our climate change crisis worsens by the day due to man’s use of fossil fuels, it is ever important that every country in the world comes together to help each other in such dire times of need. As I’ve said before, climate change will ultimately impact every aspect of society, every country on our planet, and as such it is imperative that we all come together as a global community and unify in prioritizing and solving what I believe to be the greatest challenge today’s youth will ever face. And that’s what these COP meetings strive to accomplish.
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Our  North American session hosted two venerated speakers, the esteemed Dr. Katharine Hayhoe and Emily De Sousa, who spoke to a global audience.
Dr. Hayhoe taught our attendees about the importance of statistics in climate science and her research as Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy and political science professor at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on establishing a scientific basis for assessing the regional to local-scale impacts of climate change on human systems and the natural environment.
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Emily De Sousa taught our patrons how to effectively communicate with, write to, political leaders. Emily just finished her masters degree and has extensive experience working with politicians to implement sustainable solutions.
IMG_3952Allow me to thank Dr. Hayhoe and Ms. De Sousa for their incredible work and passion. And speaking of passion, allow me to also thank the United Nations Association; acclaimed Gonzalo Alvarez, United Nations Marine Biologist and Oceanographer; and Hannah Glowacki and Karl Birkholtz, UNA Youth Council Members, for helping to organize and support this important event.
But mostly, allow me to thank the world’s youth for participating in the event and being so dedicated to helping make our planet better and cleaning up our climate mess. As your Moderator it was simply amazing to watch the world’s youth illustrate such leadership and fortitude on such an important, ominous topic.
When it comes to our global climate crisis, you, my friends, the world’s youth, will save mankind from its polluting past. This week’s Youth Marathon made that clear yet again, and I am deeply proud of each attendee’s commitment and relentless passion.
#AlwaysBelieve, #BeInconvenient, #MyOceanPledge, #RatherBeInCourt, #SaveMiami, Climate Change, Conference of the Parties, COP26, Delaney Reynolds, Dr. Hayhoe, Eco Warrior, Global Warming, Katharine Hayhoe, Miami, Miamisearise.com, Politics, Scotland, Sea Level Rise, Sea Rise, The Sink or Swim Project, UN, UN Climate & Oceans, UN COP26, United Nations, United Nations Conference of the Parties

A Birthday Present From The U.S. Treasury: Fed’s Announce An Investigation Into Climate Risks in Insurance

“Over the past 30 years, the incidence of natural disasters has dramatically increased and the actual and future potential cost to the economy has skyrocketed. We are now in a situation where climate change is an existential risk to our future economy and way of life.” 

Janet Yellen, United States Treasury Secretary, August 31, 2021

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Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and I want to thank the United State Treasury for a bit of a birthday gift in the form of the news that the U.S. Department of Treasury and its Federal Insurance Office have begun investigating the financial risks our society faces from climate change. That might not sound like an exciting birthday present but it sure could be an important one in our fight to solving the biggest issue, and I dare say risk, mankind will face in my lifetime.

My family has been in the insurance and risk management business for over 100 years dating to my grandfather’s arrival in Miami in 1910. Between that heritage and what I’ve learned over the years within the climate world, I’ve come to believe that the financial industry will shape climate policy in our futures in important ways.

Insurers are already being forced to consider what they will and will not cover much less the growing risks that our society faces from more devastating and common wildfires, monster hurricanes, and other catastrophes that earth’s rising temperatures are thrusting upon all of us as a result of mankind’s antiquated use of fossil fuels, such as petroleum. Insurance companies will surely continue to increase their prices to cover this increasing risk, require mitigation measures that will add to the cost of owning one’s home, and, one day soon, simply no longer offer coverage in areas where the risk becomes unprofitable to protect.

Likewise, mortgage lenders, many of whom traditionally offer loans with 15 or 30 year durations, must now consider the future of the asset they use as collateral for their loans, typically one’s home or business, in a world where seas are rising in places like South Florida. If you can’t get to your home or use it or, for that matter, insure it because insurers have deemed the risk too costly or impossible to bear then the climate oriented risk will impair lenders, realtors, developers, and an entire infrastructure of businesses that support where people work and live, much less the tax base these people and places currently generate for governments.

So, yes, insurers and lenders are going to dramatically shape the future of where we live and work and while the current real estate market is booming there is an end in sight. And that end comes in the form of our climate crisis that will lead to one’s flood, fire, and/or windstorm coverage going from increasingly expensive, as is the case today, to simply unavailable. That is unless we address the core problem (our use of fossil fuels) right away.

And the risks that we are talking about are truly significant. Within the FIO’s information request they refer to a 2020 report by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) about three possible climate-related risk categories including:

  • Physical risks are “the possibility that the economic costs of the increasing severity and frequency of climate-change related extreme weather events, as well as more gradual changes in climate, might erode the value of financial assets, and/or increase liabilities.” 
  • Transition risks can “arise from the technological, market, and policy changes needed to adjust to a low carbon economy and their effects on the value of financial assets and liabilities. Depending on the nature, speed, and focus of these changes, transition risks may pose varying levels of financial and reputational risk to organizations.”
  • Liability risks may “arise when parties are held liable for losses related to environmental damage that may have been caused by their actions or omissions.” 

The FSB’s report considers how climate risks might impact our world’s global financial system’s stability as well as how the risks we face will continue to evolve and grow from what it called “climate-related shocks.” Now if “climate-related shocks” is not a good title for a future blog post I don’t know what is, but all of this illustrates how seriously the serious world of finance is taking the risks industry and investors face from the very real impact of our climate change crisis.

With these things in mind the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) plans to begin by focusing on three areas of our climate crisis:

  1. Assessing climate-related issues or gaps in the supervision and regulation of insurers, including their potential impacts on U.S. financial stability;
  2. Assessing the potential for major disruptions of private insurance coverage in U.S. markets that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, as well as facilitating mitigation and resilience for disasters; and
  3. Increasing FIO’s engagement on climate-related issues and leveraging the insurance sector’s ability to help achieve climate-related goals.

You can read an article from the Insurance Journal about what the Treasury is doing as well as link to the actual Federal Register so as to comment about any number of insurance and risk related concerns here. Comments are possible over the next 75 days so I’d invite anyone that’s concerned about the impact of the climate crisis to things like the availability or affordability of insurance or a loan to make your voice heard.

Climate Change, Delaney Reynolds, Eco Warrior, Global Warming, Miami, Miamisearise.com, Politics, Sea Level Rise, Sea Rise, The Sink or Swim Project

“Unequivocal”

Oil Profits = Environmental Deficits

Two things happened yesterday that are worth noting.

First came the news that the world’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, saw its income rise by 300% in the second quarter of 2021 as it and the world “recover” from last year’s COVID-19 induced shutdowns. This news followed last month’s report from America’s largest fossil fuel company, Exxon Mobil, that its second quarter income had skyrocketed to $4.7 billion this year versus a deficit (loss) of $1 billion during the same time frame last year. If you are an oil company it sure seems that happy days are here again. 

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And speaking of deficits the second piece of news yesterday arrives in the form of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) interim Working Group report that was published yesterday ahead of next years comprehensive Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) that will be published in September 2022. Yesterday’s report is more than 3,000 pages long and includes the findings of 234 scientists whose first draft alone was was peer reviewed by 23,462 experts who then considered over 51,000 comments and includes over 14,000 citations. 

Yesterday’s report paints an increasingly bleak picture for our natural environment while vividly illustrating that the damage that’s being done is caused by the same love affair humans have long had with oil that’s boosting those oil companies profits into the sky, a sky that their product’s pollution and our use of is destroying.

Key findings in the report, which you can find here, include:

  • The past five years have been the hottest on record since temperatures were first measured in 1850. 
  • Global surface temperature was 1.09°C higher during the 2011-2020 decade than it was during the decade between 1850-1900.
  • The authors conclude that human influence on these rising temperatures is “unequivocal”, that it is “very likely” (there is 90%+ agreement amongst the authors) that mankind is warming our climate, the main driver of the global melting of glaciers that earth has experienced since the 1990’s, as well as the decrease being experience in Artic sea-ice during this same period. 
  • It is “virtually certain” that the heatwaves being seen around the world have become more frequent and intense since the 1950’s while cold events are less frequent and severe. 
  • Natural gas methane, a polluting greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, is skyrocketing and at its highest point in 800,000 years.
  • Warming is happening faster than scientists previously thought; likely reaching a 1.5 degree increase over the next decade or two, far sooner than predicated in the past, 2 degrees by 2050 and 3 degrees by 2100.  

“The ice melt is accelerating and it’s going to be unbelievable over the next decade or two. We’re just at the beginning.”

Dr. Hal Wanless
University of Miami Professor of Geography & Urban Sustainability 

Earth’s warming temperatures and melting ice is a very bad combination for places like South Florida, places surrounded by water. Michael Byrne, a client researcher at the University of Oxford, explained the report’s findings this way: “The effects of global warming are no longer in the distant future or in far-flung corners of the world. We knew what was coming and now it’s here.” 

Mr. Byrne, like Dr. Wanless, is right.

Rain bombs.

Drought.

Extreme flooding.

Wildfires.

Ice melt.

Sea level rise.

More and stronger hurricanes.

They are all upon us and nearly no one that steps outside of their home does not see, smell, or feel the heat that is driving us to disaster. 

The solution?

As always, the solution is that mankind must dramatically reduce and soon thereafter eliminate its use of the fossil fuels that we know are warming earth’s climate. The science aside, yesterday’s IPPC report notes that there is hope that we can limit the worse impacts of our growing climate crisis and that hope is founded in reducing and eliminating the pollution. Stated simply, if we cut global carbon dioxide emissions by 50% by 2030 (8.5 years!) and eliminate it by reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or so we can reduce the most severe impacts of our climate crisis. 

But we are running out of time.

As oil company profits surge and too many politicians put their political futures ahead of our planets’ time is simply running out. The United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres is right to call the report a “code red for humanity” and thus the question is will governments, industry, and people the world over take action before it’s too late? We have defined the problem. We know what needs to be done. The critical question facing each of us is does mankind have the will to actually solve the problem or will the priorities of profits and politics soon sink places like South Florida?

Climate Change, Delaney Reynolds, Eco Warrior, Global Warming, Miami, Miamisearise.com, Politics, Sea Level Rise, Sea Rise, The Sink or Swim Project
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