Search Climate Insights Directory

The report examines the intersection of the U.S. nursing shortage and private equity's expansion into travel nursing. It argues that while the pandemic exacerbated staffing issues, structural problems and profit-seeking by hospitals created a vulnerability that travel nursing agencies and private equity firms have exploited. The document details how private equity firms use leveraged buyouts and dividend recapitalizations to extract value from staffing agencies, while agencies have seen profit margins grow from 15% in 2019 to 62% in 2022. It also covers legislative efforts to address price gouging and the push for mandated staffing ratios.

The briefing highlights the growing financial threats to the US housing market from climate-related hazards, noting that over 79 million properties face wildfire risk and 14.6 million are susceptible to substantial flood damage. It emphasizes that low-income families and communities of color are disproportionately affected, citing that during Hurricane Katrina, homes owned by Black residents were three times as likely to experience flood impacts. The document advocates for the use of property-level climate data and the utilization of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act—which provides billions for climate justice, affordable housing resilience, and NOAA community efforts—to future-proof homes. It calls on regulators like the CFPB and FHFA to lead the industry toward climate-aligned housing standards and equitable financing solutions.

A coalition of 121 public interest groups and tribal communities is calling on the EPA to strengthen the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule. They argue that current exemptions for 'legacy ponds' (surface impoundments at plants retired before October 19, 2015) and 'inactive landfills' (those that stopped receiving waste by that date) leave nearly a billion tons of toxic waste unregulated. The petitioners claim the EPA is in violation of a 2018 D.C. Court of Appeals order and its own statutory duties under RCRA to review regulations every three years. The document highlights specific contamination sites in Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Illinois, emphasizing that these pollutants disproportionately affect low-income and BIPOC communities.

The report details a corporate campaign to implement municipal preemption laws that block local governments from accessing courts to recover climate-related damages. It identifies a 'triumvirate' of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ALEC, and NAM as the primary architects of this strategy, drawing parallels to previous industry efforts to avoid liability in the tobacco and opioid sectors. The document outlines specific legislative tactics used to stifle litigation and provides a framework for municipal leaders to recognize and repeal such preemption laws, while suggesting proactive legislative measures to protect local legal autonomy.

The document details the rise of the institutional single-family rental (SFR) industry following the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting how private equity firms like Blackstone, Pretium Partners, and Cerberus Capital Management have acquired hundreds of thousands of homes. It argues that these firms outcompete individual homebuyers with cash offers and impose high rents and fees on tenants. The report provides evidence of widespread eviction filings during the COVID-19 pandemic, often targeting majority-Black communities, and documents systemic failures in property maintenance. It also critiques the National Rental Home Council (NRHC) as a lobbying tool for the industry's largest players and recommends legislative protections including rent caps, 'Just Cause' eviction laws, and beneficial ownership disclosure.

The report analyzes the potential for U.S. coastal wetlands to either expand or almost entirely disappear by 2100 based on sea level rise rates, vertical accretion, and the conservation of land for horizontal migration. It identifies Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas as high-risk areas and emphasizes that conserving undeveloped dryland (refugia) is a decisive factor in preventing widespread wetland loss.

The report analyzes the future of US coastal wetlands under various sea-level rise and development scenarios. It finds that wetlands can either expand by 25% or decrease by 97% by 2100, depending on human decisions regarding land conservation for migration and the rate of vertical growth. Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas are identified as high-risk areas. The document emphasizes that preserving undeveloped land (refuges) is the most critical factor in preventing widespread wetland loss.

The document outlines how climate change impacts mental health through direct, indirect, and vicarious risks. It provides data on depression and PTSD following disasters like hurricanes, highlights widespread climate anxiety among Americans and global youth, and discusses strategies for building individual and community resilience.

Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Miami Waterkeeper successfully challenged the Florida Power & Light Company's request to double the license length of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission eventually ordered a full environmental review before allowing the plant to operate for another 20 years, addressing concerns over sea level rise, groundwater impacts, and radioactive waste.

The document is a formal complaint alleging that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) discriminates against people of color, persons with limited English proficiency (LEP), women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The core of the complaint focuses on the DEP's permitting of waste incinerators—which are disproportionately located in marginalized communities—and the agency's failure to provide Spanish-language interpretation and accessible meeting formats during the permit renewal process for the Miami-Dade County Resources Recovery Facility in Doral.

In late January 2022, a federal judge revoked a Biden administration oil and gas lease sale offering over 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. The court ruled that the Department of Interior failed to adequately assess the climate impacts of the drilling. The sale was challenged by a coalition including Friends of the Earth and Earthjustice, who argued that the project would exacerbate systemic racism in frontline communities and threaten endangered species such as Bryde’s and Rice’s whales.

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) reports that corporate landlords filed at least 123,761 evictions in 2021 across Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Nevada. The testimony highlights a surge in filings following the end of the federal eviction moratorium in August 2021, noting that corporate landlords were responsible for over 56% of all evictions in tracked counties between late August and December 31. PESP identifies Pretium Partners as a top filer with at least 2,202 filings in 2021, and notes a record 90,000 single-family home acquisitions by investors in the third quarter of 2021.

The document examines the dual role of U.S. ports as both significant emitters of greenhouse gases and vulnerable infrastructure facing climate threats like sea level rise. It details mitigation strategies, including electrification of machinery and shore powering for ships, and adaptation methods, such as nature-based shoreline protection and improved stormwater management. The brief highlights specific initiatives at ports in California, Georgia, and Florida, while noting the importance of federal resources like the EPA Ports Initiative in supporting these transitions.

The document opposes the renewal of the Title V permit for the Miami-Dade County Resources Recovery Facility (Covanta Incinerator). It argues that the draft permit fails to include necessary emission limitations from previous State Implementation Plan (SIP) and Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permits, lacks adequate monitoring for pollutants and odors, and contains unlawful 'director discretion' provisions. The authors emphasize that the facility is located in an environmental justice community where 92% of the population are people of color and 36% live below the poverty line, exacerbating health risks from toxic emissions and greenhouse gases.

Climate Central's analysis indicates that five historic sites in St. Augustine, Florida—Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas, Fort Mose, the Lightner Museum, and the Lincolnville District—are all projected to face chronic flood risk by the end of the century. Using the RCP 8.5 emissions scenario, the report finds that several sites already face substantial threats, with some experiencing frequent or chronic risk currently.

The document argues that electrifying homes and businesses is a critical pathway to net-zero emissions, noting that these buildings account for 13% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It highlights high-efficiency heat pumps, smart thermostats, and weatherization as key upgrades that can reduce emissions and lower utility bills. The brief emphasizes that while individual actions are important, systemic support through government incentives, building codes, and financing is necessary to overcome barriers, particularly for low-income households and renters in multifamily housing.

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) testifies that manufactured housing, which comprises 6.3% of the U.S. housing stock, is increasingly owned by private equity firms and institutional investors. These owners leverage the limited mobility of residents—who often cannot move or sell their homes without significant loss—to increase rents and fees. PESP highlights YES! Communities as a primary example of aggressive eviction practices, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The document calls for rent regulations, 'good cause' eviction laws, and paths toward resident or public ownership to preserve affordability and safety.

The document reports that there were over 4.1 million climate jobs in the United States in 2020, despite an 8% overall decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It breaks down employment by sector, noting that energy efficiency supported the most jobs (2.1 million), followed by energy transmission, distribution, and storage (763,000), and renewable energy (504,600). The report highlights growth in specific areas like electric vehicles and wind energy, and emphasizes the emerging field of climate adaptation and resilience. It concludes that significant further job creation is possible through federal investment and policies targeting renewable energy targets and the plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells.

The document defines adaptation and resilience professionals as those integrating future climate conditions into their daily work, noting that such roles span for-profit, academic, government, and nonprofit sectors. It highlights a lack of standardized Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) codes for these roles, which complicates accurate counting, though it notes the U.S. adaptation and resilience industry was valued at $2.4 billion in 2019. The text categorizes the workforce into five roles—practitioner, service or tool provider, funder, policy maker, and advocate—and calls for updated Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) systems to better track this growing workforce.

CoastalDEM v2.1 is a high-resolution global digital elevation model (DEM) designed to improve the accuracy of coastal flood and sea level rise assessments. By employing a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on NASA's ICESat-2 satellite lidar data and using NASADEM as a base, it significantly reduces the positive vertical bias common in satellite radar DEMs, particularly in densely populated urban areas where buildings often distort elevation readings. Validation against ICESat-2 and airborne lidar data from the US and Australia indicates that CoastalDEM v2.1 outperforms other leading global models like TanDEM-X and MERIT, especially in the critical elevation band below 5 meters.