Transition Finance Weekly - 4/10/2025
Home Insurance Costs Spike, Trump Takes Aim, DOGE Takes NOAA Offline
SPECIAL FEATURE: Climate Change-Driven Insurance Costs Just Keep Climbing
And the states with the highest premium increases may surprise you.
Climate change means more frequent extreme weather disasters and rapidly rising insurance premiums nationwide. A new report from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) underscores that the national insurance crisis isn’t just confined to high-risk states like Florida and California. Extreme weather like hail, tornadoes, and flooding is driving up risk everywhere, and insurers are passing costs directly to consumers. From the report:
Americans saw insurance premiums rise 24% in three years, by an average of $648.
As of 2024, typical homeowners paid $3,303 per year for insurance.
Premiums increased in 95% of U.S. ZIP codes.
The highest rate increases from 2021 to 2024 probably weren’t where you think. Utah (59%), Illinois (50%), Arizona (48%), and Pennsylvania (44%) topped the list.
This is our shared reality: One in seven U.S. homes are uninsured because Americans can’t afford home insurance, and that puts whole communities and our economy at risk. We need real solutions that protect consumers and communities.
Douglas Heller, CFA’s Director of Insurance: “American homeowners are facing unprecedented premium hikes. But the insurance commissioners and lawmakers we depend upon to ensure that this critical coverage is available and affordable have not done enough to collect, let alone make public, the data from insurance companies that are needed to effectively target solutions to this crisis and hold bad actors accountable. Americans are stuck buying insurance from companies that our public officials seem afraid of.”
1. Trump Targets State Climate Policies in New Executive Order
Glorified press release reaffirms efforts to block state and city climate ambition. It’s toothless, and flagrantly unconstitutional.
A presidential Executive Order issued yesterday demands the Attorney General to identify and “take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement of” state laws that address climate change, including any state laws involving environmental justice, greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon taxes.
The E.O. specifically refers to climate superfund laws in New York and Vermont, which the order labels as “extortion” – and also singles out California’s cap-and-trade program.
A separate order issued on the same day aims to prop up the coal industry.
Notably, almost every climate law on the books is already legally challenged — and virtually all survive. The best defense? For states to keep up the good work to protect their residents.
The E.O. “does little in itself” but “is likely a forerunner to litigation, lawmaking, or the withholding of federal funds,” according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. We’ll be watching to see if Congressional action follows.
The response from state leaders has been defiant. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance: “We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred. We will keep advancing solutions to the climate crisis that safeguard Americans’ fundamental right to clean air and water, create good-paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and make our future healthier and safer.”
2. DOGE’s Assault on NOAA Continues
Web hosting contract cancellations mean lifesaving NOAA web services could go dark.
Fresh on the heels of attempted mass layoffs, DOGE has begun to cancel contracts with NOAA’s web hosting services, putting critical weather data used by governments, scientists, and businesses worldwide at risk of completely disappearing. By the time you read this, some services could already be offline.
There’s no substitute, private or public, for the critical data NOAA provides, the satellites it relies on, and the weather stations it operates. Meteorologists, public agencies, and even first responders in an era of climate disasters can’t do what needs to be done without it. And these cuts are the opposite of cost-saving: NOAA provides an astonishing 73:1 return on investment.
Eliminating this critical service was always the plan. Project 2025 outlined how to dismantle NOAA and privatize the National Weather Service (NWS), and we’re seeing that plan in action.
On top of the very real risk to human life, experts warn that these cuts will exacerbate the national home insurance crisis. Without reliable data, insurers won’t be able to assess risks properly, leading to higher premiums and/or a complete meltdown of the insurance system.
Katy Croff Bell, president and founder of the nonprofit Ocean Discovery League: “Those are all public resources. They have been collected with taxpayer money. It should be available. It should be out there. It should not be deleted.”
3. Wake Up, People: Climate Risks Already Hitting Financial Markets
Oxford Economics study emphasizes how investors need climate risk transparency.
Climate impact has always been a material risk factor for markets, but it’s definitely getting worse, and a new study from Oxford Economics proves it. Researchers analyzed stock performance between 2014 and 2024 and found that companies with less exposure to climate risks, whether from vulnerable supply chains or operations in high-risk regions, outperformed those more exposed to climate impacts.
This is why climate risk disclosures are crucial. Investors can’t afford to overlook the impact of climate change. Keeping climate risks hidden won’t make them disappear; conversely, full transparency enables better decision-making for both investors and regulators.
From the study: “Firms and sectors that are particularly exposed will need to take action to mitigate that exposure, or face restricted access to capital…. Those that are more insulated or that actively address their exposure to climate change will attract more favourable access to capital.”
4. Savannah Hyundai Plant Proves Regional Economic Potential of Clean Energy
But without supportive policy, it will be hard to replicate elsewhere.
Hyundai’s new EV-focused plant in Savannah is a case study on the economic benefits of clean energy. With 8,500 employees by 2030 and a potential half-billion dollars in payroll, the plant has the potential to be the most transformative influence over the region’s economy in decades.
What made this possible? Federal incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act gave Hyundai a nudge. Then state and local leaders made it clear Hyundai was welcome, came together to sweeten the deal — and then committed themselves to invest in roads, rezoning, schools, water infrastructure, and more. Counties in the region are building the talent pipeline, too.
5. New York Moves Forward with Emissions Reporting Rule
But slow progress underscores the tension among policy, politics, and climate urgency.
New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation announced draft greenhouse gas reporting regulations last week that would require large polluters, and companies in polluting industries, to calculate and report their emissions starting in 2027. Companies across industries emitting 10,000 metric tons or more of CO2 equivalent per year will be required to comply.
This new rule, which will help the state meet legally mandated targets in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), is the first part of a package of provisions that will ultimately add up to a “cap-and-invest” carbon pricing program. Cap-and-invest was expected to roll out this year, but Gov. Kathy Hochul has been slow-walking it; her January announcement that she would further delay it triggered a lawsuit from advocates in March.
Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director, Environmental Advocates NY: “This draft regulation is important; however, its release, without the rest of the cap-and-invest regulatory package, is also a reminder of how slowly New York is moving to address a crisis that is worsening by the day…. Cap-and-invest is ready, could reduce toxic air pollution while raising billions of dollars of revenue for New Yorkers, and the Governor can act now—no new approvals needed.”