More Suggestions for the Biden Administration's Nascent Climate Resilience Policy
I support the introduction of a carbon tax to both raise revenue for the U.S government and to accelerate the reduction in the nation’s carbon footprint and to accelerate low carbon innovation.
But, this piece is focused on the climate change adaptation and resilience challenge (not the mitigation challenge).
Some Metrics for judging the new President’s resilience agenda;
What if there is a national disclosure law that every sold property in the U.S (residential, commercial, land, etc) must declare its air pollution, fire risk, and flood risk. Just as Zillow and Redfin offer data on neighborhood attributes such as crime and school quality, I want to see the property information websites distributing this information. Who would supply “kosher” fire and flood risk information? There can be a national competition to certify firms who can enter this space and compete for contracts to supply these data.
What if the Biden Administration offered financial transfers to cities who change their zoning code to upzone in parts of the city that are on “higher ground” and face less climate risk? This supply side approach would alleviate concerns about “climate gentrification”. The popular press has a zero sum game mentality that there are only a few safe parts of each city and the rich will win the bidding to live there. The mistake in this logic is to ignore zoning. Change the zoning code and many more people will find urban housing more affordable in safer parts of the city. Land in America’s cities is used in very inefficient ways. As the quantity of ride sharing increases, how many parking lots do we need? What % of each city is parking lots? This land can be redeployed.
What if the Biden Administration starts to phase out FEMA subsidies and requires that property buyers must hold a certain level of flood insurance. For example, the flood insurance could equal the amount of money to rebuild the home. The private insurance sector would now have a huge market to sell to here and this would create a new market to do the core research to price these policies. Home buyers in riskier places would pay more for insurance.
What if the Biden Administration’s Agricultural Department provides incentives to states to phase out their water subsidies for farmers? Water prices are highly distorted and this slows down climate change adaptation.
What if the Biden Administration increases immigration into the nation with a focus on younger, more educated people.
I discuss all of these points in my 2021 Yale University Press book; Adapting to Climate Change.