Credit ratings could crash if cities and states  don’t prepare for climate change

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Moody’s is warning that coastal communities that aren’t prepared for climate change will have to pay much higher interest rates.

The Moody’s report pushes municipalities to get ahead of the problem by investing in infrastructure and resilience efforts. The cost of adapting to a changing climate will only increase, the report says.

The guidance is part of a larger trend in which rating agencies, institutional investors, and large corporations are increasingly taking climate risk into account in their decisions.

Vanguard, the world’s largest mutual fund provider, recently announced that it is pushing companies to disclose the risks climate change will pose to their business. The fund, which manages trillions of dollars, is a top shareholder at many of the largest US corporations — including in the oil and gas sectors. Oil giant Shell recently pledged to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050.

Source: Cities and states could see their credit ratings crash if they don’t start preparing for climate change