Financial Climate

Wars and national defense cause enormous greenhouse gas emissions. But military-related climate pollution is generally excluded from climate change emission totals, including those reported under the UNFCCC (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Obviously, the Trump administration has been pushing US allies to shoulder more of their own security. And many European nations have already been ramping up military spending at least since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But at the same time, the US has also continued to increase its own military spending. And so have other nations around the world, from Russia and China to Pakistan, Mexico, Japan, and others. My guest today is Ellie Kinney. She’s the Senior Climate Advocacy Officer at a UK-based NGO called the Conflict and Environment Observatory. She and her colleagues advocate for the inclusion of military emissions in national accounting for greenhouse gas pollution. They estimate that the climate costs of military activities is above 5.5% of annual global emissions. That’s nearly half the amount produced by all the world’s cars, and more than all the emissions from aviation. I sat down with Ellie to learn why military emissions data is so hard to come by. I wanted to know what can be done to improve transparency and how the climate impact of militaries might be reduced. I wanted to better understand what strategies and innovations the Conflict and Environment Observatory and allied organizations are using in their efforts to highlight and alleviate this enormous, growing, and mostly hidden problem. Additional resources mentioned in this episode:The Conflict and Environment Observatoryhttps://militaryemissions.org/Initiative on Greenhouse Gas Accounting of WarBenjamin Neimark and Kate Mackintosh: "How wars ravage the environment – and what international law is doing about it"Bellingcat

Catastrophe bonds, or cat bonds, have exploded in popularity in recent years. They have emerged as a critical financial tool to foster resilience from hurricanes and other disasters that are made worse or more frequent by climate change. By the end of 2025, more than $60 billion in cat bonds were outstanding. The world’s leading firm in structuring cat bond transactions is Aon Securities. My guest today is its CEO, Richard Pennay. Over more than two decades, he has helped to pioneer development of this innovative financial instrument. I sat down with Richard to learn more about how these deals work and what they’re used for. I wanted to better understand their unique role in resilience. And I was curious to know how their use may expand as the effects of climate change worsen, and as states and localities may need to shoulder more of the cost of their own recovery from disasters. 

For decades, municipal bonds have made up a vital asset class for savers, retirees, and institutional investors. In the United States, that market is worth more than $4 trillion. At the same time, the revenue from issuing muni bonds pays for nearly 70% of the country’s infrastructure—everything from roads and bridges to water purification and sewage treatment plants. Yet as the effects of climate change are felt more strongly, this crucial system may face serious vulnerabilities. My guest today is Tom Doe. He’s the founder and was the long-time CEO of a company called Municipal Market Analytics. Since the 1990s, the firm has advised well-heeled and sophisticated clients on all aspects of municipal bonds. I sat down with Tom to better understand how this kind of climate vulnerability could play out. I wanted to know why, in spite of climate dangers, that the current effects of climate change on the muni market are still so hard to detect. And I was interested to learn how the power and resources of this vast market might be used to foster climate resilience. Links:Municipal Market Analytics, Inc. 

Like so many things in Silicon Valley, venture capital investment in climate tech is cyclical. Climate tech first gained attention from venture capitalists starting around 2006, thanks in part to legendary venture investor John Doerr. After initially seeming to fizzle, climate tech VC bouced back. In 2021, at least $49 billion of climate tech VC investments were made, which PWC estimates at 14% of the year’s total. Since then, climate tech VC fell again—along with overall venture capital investing, which was hurt by the spike in interest rates that started in 2022.Yet climate tech investment has continued to make up 10% or more of total venture funding. Even that significant proportion greatly understates the tremendous attention and optimism that climate VC funding continues to attract. Partly this is because Silicon Valley has an outsized influence on our national economy, culture, and discourse. The valley’s can-do attitude, outside-the-box thinking and record of transforming society have generated justified optimism that tech entrepreneurs can help drive progress on climate. Yet silicon valley’s monomaniacal pursuit of unimaginable profits have sometimes caused its leaders to betray their vaunted ideals of social progress. And tech firms in recent years have often burdened workers, communities, and the broader society with devastating and persistent side effects of the next big thing.My guest today is Catherine Bracy, founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization TechEquity. She’s also the author of World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy. I sat down with Catherine to talk about her insightful book and related work. Although her work doesn’t focus primarily on climate tech, her perceptive critique of Silicon Valley’s excesses and venture capital’s pathologies provided for me a new way to think about the consequences of VC as a driving force behind climate tech. Additional resources:TechEquityWorld Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

In the U.S., between 2020 and 2024, the total cost of major weather related disasters averaged about $150 billion per year. That’s more than five times the annual average during the 1980s, even after adjusting for inflation. At the same time as they’ve gotten more costly, major disasters have become more frequent. Inevitably, increasing losses have begun to strain property insurers. In some areas, like parts of California, premiums have gone up drastically. In some markets, insurance is now only offered through last-resort government-sponsored programs. My guest today is Dr. Carolyn Kousky, an expert on disaster insurance and climate risk management. She has advised numerous communities on these subjects. Her many publications include the 2022 book Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future. She’s taught courses on related subjects at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. More recently she founded a nonprofit organization called Insurance for Good, and she currently serves as Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. I sat down with Carolyn to better understand the current and future points of failure in markets for insurance against weather disasters. I was interested to know what the broader consequences may be of a breakdown in those markets. I wanted to hear about what kinds of innovations or policy changes might help in this critical area of climate finance, which has the potential for such profound effects on households and businesses everywhere.Additional resources:Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)First StreetUnited PolicyholdersInsurance for GoodUnderstanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future, by Carolyn KouskyEnvironmental Defense Fund (EDF)

Few people are more closely associated with the climate movement than Bill McKibben. In 1989 he published The End of Nature. It was the first popular book for a broad audience on the climate crisis. Over more than 35 years since then, he’s written about 20 books, and many, many articles in prominent publications. In 2008, he founded a climate advocacy nonprofit called 350.org, which now has about $20 million in annual revenues and is active on six continents. More broadly, he played a critical role in establishing a grassroots activist movement for climate action. He’s been instrumental in a number of climate campaigns, encouraging fossil fuel asset divestment and pushing to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, among many other efforts. With all the things he’s been involved with, you or I may quibble with McKibben about this or that particular strategy or tactic or approach. But it’s undeniable that he has worked more tirelessly and authentically over a longer time period than almost anyone toward progress on the climate crisis. I sat down with Bill to talk about his latest book, which is called Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. I wanted to learn more about how he sees the current role of the climate movement. And I wanted to hear how and why he thinks solar power may provide a uniquely important path forward for climate progress at this dangerous and critical moment. Additional resources mentioned in this episode:Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibbenThe Crucial YearsThird ActSun Day350.orgShort Circuiting Policy, by Leah Cardamore StokesHow Big Things Get Done, by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

Anyone paying even a bit of attention to climate solutions knows that we’ve seen in recent years tremendous development of wind and solar power generation. Most people also understand that that development needs to continue, along with deployment of other carbon-free power sources. But in order for the clean energy transition to succeed, we also need to make ambitious improvements to America’s transmission grid. The transmission system is a vast, intricate, nationwide machine that most of us take for granted. Most people don’t fully understand all the things it does, why it’s so important, or how is needs to evolve.My guest today, is Rob Gramlich. He’s the founder and President of a Washington-DC-based consultancy called Grid Strategies. You’d be hard pressed to find someone more knowledgeable than he is about the challenges and opportunities of grid improvement. He frequently testifies before Congress, the Federal energy regulatory commission, and state agencies, and he’s widely respected by key decisionmakers across the political spectrum. Rob has founded a number of important organizations, including Americans for a Clean Energy Grid. Before founding Grid Strategies, he also held important roles at the American Wind Energy Association, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and elsewhere. I sat down with Rob to better understand why improvements to the transmission system are essential for the success of the renewable energy transition. I was curious what needs to be improved to make the grid function as it needs to. I wanted to hear what obstacles are impeding these improvements, and where there may be opportunities—even in the current political environment—for meaningful progress on this complex and crucial aspect of the climate problem.Other resources:Grid Strategies, LLCFederal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson 

In the last episode of this show, I had the privilege of talking with Elizabeth Burch and Adam Orford, two law professors from University of Georgia. They helped me to better understand many of the types of climate lawsuits that have proliferated in recent years.But there are so many varieties of climate litigation that there’s a whole other category we barely touched on, which has special relevance to the nexus of climate and finance. I’m talking about shareholder lawsuits brought under corporate or securities law. As before, I wanted to talk with an expert insider, but someone who has more objectivity and a broader perspective than a lawyer immersed in pending cases. My guest today is Emily Strauss. She’s a law professor at UC Law San Francisco. That’s the University of California law school that was formerly known as UC Hastings. She’s an expert in corporate law and securities and financial regulation, and some of her recent scholarly research spcifically explores patterns in climate-related shareholder litigation. I sat down with Emily to learn more about how these lawsuits relate to other types of climate-related shareholder advocacy and other types of climate lawsuits. I wanted to know what opportunities shareholder litigation might create to push corporations toward action on climate, and what limitations they may have as a tool for advancing environmental or social goals. Additional resources:Climate Change and Shareholder Lawsuits (academic paper by Emily Strauss)Is Everything Securities Fraud? (academic paper by Emily Strauss)Climate Change Litigation Databases (Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law)

In recent years, as climate change has gained attention, there's been a proliferation of climate related lawsuits. They're based on a wide variety of legal theories. Some are brought under federal statutes like the Clean Air Act, others are brought under state statutes. Still others rely on common law, which is so old that it predates the widespread use of fossil fuels. Some of these lawsuits seem mainly symbolic. Others have been brought by state and local governments—inspired by the multibillion dollar tobacco litigation of the 1990s—seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for astronomical financial damages. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University maintains a public database that tracks climate related litigation. The center reports 97 climate related cases filed just in the first 10 months of 2023, with well over 100 filed each year since 2017. And that's for the U.S. alone. To better understand all this, I thought about talking with some of the attorneys bringing or defending these lawsuits. But it seemed like a better idea to talk to experts with a more objective viewpoint than an attorney involved directly in a case. I also wanted to understand better where these climate change cases fit into the bigger picture of environmental law. I wanted to learn how they relate more broadly to the use of litigation to bring about change on major societal issues like opioids, or toxic waste or the spread of disinformation. Today I'm joined by two law professors from the University of Georgia School of Law. Elizabeth Chamblee Burch is an expert in complex civil lawsuits. Among her many publications on related subjects, she wrote a book in 2019, called Mass Tort Deals: Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation. Adam Orford’s expertise is in environmental and climate change law and the energy transition. He's litigated complex environmental and energy cases in private practice. And besides his law degree, he has a Ph.D. in energy and resources. Other resources:Climate Change Litigation Databases (Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law)Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

The Paris climate agreement was designed to keep Earth habitable through a framework of national emission reduction commitments. But actual binding laws enforcing those commitments are still lagging behind. In response, many corporations have promised to reach net zero emissions voluntarily. Many have released plans of how they intend to do that. And consumers and investors have sought to hold them accountable.Despite some admirable progress, a lot of corporate commitments are based an incomplete patchwork of emission disclosures. And too often, companies’ climate plans are full of caveats, inconsistencies, and outright greenwashing. Federal governmental action to require rigorous climate disclosures is—at best—slow in coming. But California has found a brilliant workaround. If California were a country, it’s economy would be the fifth largest in the world. By passing a state law that affects companies doing business in California, the state can set a standard that companies are held to around the country and the world. On October 7, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill called the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, championed by State Senator Scott Wiener. The law will soon require rigorous and standardized disclosures for a huge number of companies that do business in California. This episode’s guest, Catherine Atkin is an attorney, a climate entrepreneur, and the co-founder of a nonprofit organization called Carbon Accountable. She’s also a CodeX fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. State Senator Wiener’s office has described Catherine as the legal mastermind behind the new law. SB 353 TextCarbon AccountableCatherine Atkin Stanford CodeX Fellow bio

InnSure is a nonprofit organization that fosters insurance-related innovations to address climate problems. Usually, we think of insurance as a tool for climate change adaptation—and it is. But InnSure also looks at insurance as an indispensable tool to help implement and scale emission-reducing technologies. I wanted to understand better why and how that is. I also wanted to learn about the enormous climate-related business opportunities emerging in the insurance industry, and how these relate to the set of transformative insurance initiatives commonly known as insurtech.This episode's guest, Christopher Lowell, is a Managing Director at InnSure. He has deep expertise and hands-on experience in the insurance industry. He worked as the Managing Director of Corporate Strategy and Research at Liberty Mutual. Among other insurance roles, he also set up and led an experimental insurance innovation lab inside The Hartford.https://innsure.org/https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-lowell

More than ever before, advocates are pressuring private-sector companies to take action related to climate impacts. One thing that’s increased the potential effectiveness of these tactics is the tremendous concentration of corporate voting power in the hands of a small number of enormous asset managers. And at the same time, huge, secretive, private equity firms are amassing control of privately held companies, or are taking publicly-traded corporations private.  Harvard Law and Economics professor John C. Coates has just released an insightful and thought-provoking book about the dangers and challenges of these investing trends. During his distinguished career, he was a partner at the leading Wall Street law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and he served at the U.S. the Securities and Exchange Commission in several roles, including as General Counsel. His new book is called The Problem of 12: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything. I sat down with John Coates to learn about the many problems stemming from this extraordinary concentration of corporate power. I was especially interested to understand what his arguments mean for the efforts of the activists and consumers pushing corporations to meet climate goals and uphold other standards of environmental and social responsibility. 

Robin Millington is the CEO of the London-based nonprofit financial think tank Planet Tracker. She talks about how her organization uses sophisticated financial tools to make markets more environmentally sustainable.https://planet-tracker.org/

Ben Keys, a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of Business talks about the effects of climate risk on insurance, property values, and real estate markets. Relevant Links:Ben Keys New York Times guest opinion on climate risk and homeowners' insuranceBen Keys Congressional testimonyhttps://firststreet.org/https://www.nber.org/papers/w27930 (Ben Keys and Philip Mulder economic research paper on the housing markets, mortgage lending, and sea level rise)

In 2012, Emilie Mazzacurati founded a company called Four Twenty Seven. It pioneered the practice of applying esoteric scientific climate models to help businesses manage climate risk. She sold the company to Moody's in 2019, and stayed on to manage it as Moody's Global Head of Climate Solutions. She's now working on a new venture related to climate mitigation.  Emilie talks about the challenges of understanding and managing business climate risk. She discusses improvements in our ability to develop and apply climate data and the importance of doing so. She also shares insights on the lack of climate tech investment in adaptation and the breadth of entrepreneurial possibilities in the climate adaptation space. Relevant links:https://climate.moodys.com/https://www.caelistrategy.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/emazzacurati

Ambassador Janine Felson is an expert on international climate finance frameworks and governance structures. She served as a senior diplomat from Belize to the United Nations. She contributed to crucial international negotiations, including the 2015 Paris climate agreement. She also held key roles as a negotiator and strategist on behalf of a coalition of countries facing extreme climate vulnerabilities—called the Alliance of Small Island States. Programming note: Going forward, to better accommodate the workload of producing this podcast, Financial Climate will run every three weeks, rather than every two.

In 2020, Ulf Erlandsson founded a nonprofit activist think tank called the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, or AFII. Through sophisticated analysis of bond markets, the organization seeks to hold corporations and governments accountable to climate goals. Erlandsson worked for many years as a bond trader and fixed income portfolio manager, including on behalf of AP4, a Swedish public pension fund which currently manages the equivalent of more than $44 billion in assets. He also worked as a quantitative strategist at Barclays Capital. He holds a PhD in Economics from Lund University in Sweden. Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) web siteAFII on LinkedInUlf Erlandsson on LinkedIn

Today's guest is Dimitry Gershenson, co-founder and CEO of Enduring Planet. Enduring Planet is a startup financial technology firm that lends to climate-focused businesses. It provides financing without the need for an equity stake, collateral, or personal guarantee from funding recipients.

Today’s guest is Kingsmill Bond, a longtime equity analyst and strategist, who has provided insights on the energy industry on behalf of some of the largest banks and asset managers in the world. After recognizing the implications of the energy transition for financial markets, he went to work for the pioneering London-based nonprofit financial think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative. Still in London, he’s now a Senior Principal on the strategy team at the U.S.-based nonprofit RMI. Mentioned in/relevant to this episode: The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton M. ChristensenHow Big Things Get Done, by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan GardnerCarbon Tracker Initiative RMIKingsmill Bond web site

In today's episode, climate economist and lawyer Danny Cullenward discusses Making Climate Policy Work, a book he wrote with coauthor David Victor.  He talks about how structural political forces so often prevent cap-and-trade programs from working in practice the way they're supposed to in theory. He explains how industrial policy, usually thought of as less efficient than tradeable pollution permits, is often much more impactful in the real world.  He also talks about the many problems with carbon offsets--in both compliance and voluntary markets.Cullenward is a Research Fellow with the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.  He co-founded the nonprofit organization Carbon Plan and serves as vice chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee.Resources discussed in or related to this episode:Making Climate Policy Work, By Danny Cullenward and David G. VictorBloomberg article: This Timber Company Sold Millions of Dollars of Useless Carbon OffsetsGuardian article: Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis showshttps://carbonplan.org/https://frontierclimate.com/How Solar Energy Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation, By Gregory F. Nemet Follow Danny Cullenward on Twitter

Today’s guest is Franz Hochstrasser, CEO of Raise Green. Raise Green is an SEC and FINRA-registered online marketplace through which individuals and institutions can invest in startups and other private companies pursuing climate solutions. It serves as a vehicle for for-profit enterprises with a climate focus to raise money from small (as well as larger) investors.Note: Neither this podcast nor the host provide financial advice. Do your own diligence on financial decisions!Mentioned in this episode:Greentown labs: https://greentownlabs.com/Connecticut Green Bank: https://www.ctgreenbank.com/The Clean Fight Energy Accelerator Startup Program: https://www.thecleanfight.com/Raise Green: https://www.raisegreen.com/Raise Green’s crowdfunding site: https://wefunder.com/raisegreen/

Bryan Garcia talks about how Connecticut Green Bank has devised innovative financing tools to bring clean energy solutions to businesses and households. He explains how its programs have been designed to include people in lower-income and minority communities. We also talk about how green banks are evolving and expanding nationally, and how the tens of billions in new federal appropriations for green banks may be deployed.Mentioned in this episode:https://www.ctgreenbank.com/https://www.posigen.com/https://cbey.yale.edu/https://www.raisegreen.com/https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/

Sylvia Leyva Martinez, an expert on utility-scale solar at Wood Mackenzie, talks about the challenges and complexities of the solar industry’s current astronomical growth.

Henry Sanderson discusses his book Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green.

Uday Varadarajan of RMI talks about the challenges and opportunities of shutting down America’s remaining coal-fired power plants.

Sam Van den plas, Policy Director of the European NGO Carbon Market Watch discusses the European Emission Trading System’s successes, failures, and challenges.

Katherine Blunt discusses her book, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric–and What It Means for America's Power Grid.

Join host Alex Roth every two weeks for conversations with the most insightful investors, innovators, and experts at the frontier of climate and finance.