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What the 2026 Midterm Election Mean for the Clean Economy: Five Key Takeaways
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Ceres, a non-profit organization that is mobilizing companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and global sustainability challenges, posted the following news release:
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What the 2026 Midterm Election Mean for the Clean Economy: Five Key Takeaways
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The 2026 U.S. midterm election delivered historic results that have changed the landscape of Ceres' policy work. A new generation of leaders who support clean energy is heading to Congress, governor's offices, and state legislatures on promises to
... Show Full Article
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Ceres, a non-profit organization that is mobilizing companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and global sustainability challenges, posted the following news release:
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What the 2026 Midterm Election Mean for the Clean Economy: Five Key Takeaways
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The 2026 U.S. midterm election delivered historic results that have changed the landscape of Ceres' policy work. A new generation of leaders who support clean energy is heading to Congress, governor's offices, and state legislatures on promises tobring down prices and make the economy more affordable.
The policies that take shape in the coming years will define the next chapter of American-made clean energy.
During our recent webinar, The Post-Election Playbook: Opportunities to Advance Clean Economy Policy, the Ceres policy team analyzed what the results mean for the private sector, as well as for bipartisan solutions that lower electricity costs by modernizing the grid and expanding homegrown clean energy and domestic manufacturing.
There are incredible opportunities in Congress and in the states to build a cleaner, more resilient, and affordable economy.
Here are five key takeaways:
1/ A moment of clean economy opportunity
With new leaders on Capitol Hill and in statehouses nationwide, there is an opening to advance a policy agenda centered on expanding clean energy and modernizing our aging power grid. Wind, solar, and energy storage are the fastest and most affordable ways to meet increased power demand and address rising electricity prices. We expect renewed momentum at the state and federal levels to open the door to more clean energy investment, good jobs, and lower bills.
2/ Policy progress will come from the affordability lens
Affordability was the top policy issue in the election. Our work over the next two years will be focused on helping policymakers deliver. In the near term, Congress can make it easier to build clean energy and transmission projects, while states can modernize their existing infrastructure and expand cost-saving efficiency programs. Looking towards the future, we see an opportunity to develop a more durable framework for long-term clean energy and clean transportation incentives to both keep costs down and reduce pollution.
3/ Stars aligning in the states
The states offer an opportunity for responsible businesses to make a big impact next year. Legislatures will have new pro-clean energy majorities across the country, from Arizona to Pennsylvania to North Carolina. New utility regulators are taking over,, including in Georgia, where voters sent new members to the Public Service Commission. Ceres has laid out commonsense, bipartisan policy options for states in Powering Affordability: A Business-Backed Playbook for a Modern Clean Energy System. With business and sustainability leaders helping to chart the path, states can deliver a new vision for energy policy.
4/ Building bipartisan support
Despite new majorities for Democrats in Congress and statehouses, the reality is that bipartisan solutions are durable solutions. Without consensus, it's all too easy for clean energy policy to change with the winds of each presidential administration. We are committed to rebuilding the coalition of bipartisan support in Congress needed to secure durable policy outcomes for a clean economy. Companies can tell a powerful story to policymakers about how clean energy investment can benefit their districts and states, including through new local jobs, reliable and affordable power, and lower costs.
5/ Urgency on permitting and transmission reform
The Bipartisan Affordability and Jobs Act would get critical clean energy projects built faster, strengthen reliability, and deliver lower-cost power to the people and industries that need it. While the bill is not perfect, we are confident that constructive amendments will improve its substance and its prospects in the short term. The window to pass it before the current Congress adjourns in December is closing, and the business voice is vital. Policymakers need to hear directly from business leaders to pass the bill so we can spend the next two years ensuring strong implementation and working on the next round of policies to lower prices and expand reliable, American-made clean energy.
The road ahead
So, what's next? Ceres spent the past two years laying the groundwork for this moment, and we are ready to act. We're heading to Capitol Hill on December 10 for an advocacy day focused on clean economy priorities for the next Congress, and we'll return in March for LEAD on a Clean Economy, our annual advocacy event.
In the states, we're bringing together companies and policymakers in Georgia in December to discuss electricity load growth and sustainability. We're also partnering with Siemens and Advanced Energy United in December for a similar event in Pennsylvania, with speakers from the governor's office and the state legislature.
This work is stronger with a big tent. We hope you'll join us and be part of it as we build an affordable, clean economy.
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Original text here: https://www.ceres.org/resources/news/what-the-2026-midterm-election-mean-for-the-clean-economy-five-key-takeaways
The Giving Review : A conversation with the Finding Common Purpose Foundation's Andrew Wolk (Part 2 of 2)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary:
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The Giving Review : A conversation with the Finding Common Purpose Foundation's Andrew Wolk (Part 2 of 2)
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Andrew Wolk, founder and lead donor of the Finding Common Purpose Foundation, has spent more than two decades in the world of social entrepreneurship, nonprofit consulting, and philanthropy. After an earlier career in business, he started several nonprofit groups--including, in 2004, Root Cause. A Boston-based consulting group, Root Cause advised foundations, nonprofits, corporations,
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary:
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The Giving Review : A conversation with the Finding Common Purpose Foundation's Andrew Wolk (Part 2 of 2)
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Andrew Wolk, founder and lead donor of the Finding Common Purpose Foundation, has spent more than two decades in the world of social entrepreneurship, nonprofit consulting, and philanthropy. After an earlier career in business, he started several nonprofit groups--including, in 2004, Root Cause. A Boston-based consulting group, Root Cause advised foundations, nonprofits, corporations,and government agencies on strategies for addressing social problems. It worked with George Soros' Open Society Foundations on what became the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. Wolk also founded the Social Innovation Forum and Interise, and he has taught social entrepreneurship at Boston University, MIT, and Harvard, among other places.
Over time, Wolk became increasingly disillusioned with and critical of the field in which he had established himself--and of his own role in it. Amidst the exciting initiatives, innovative programs, and claimed social impact, he began to question whether all the considerable resources and effort were broadly producing meaningful outcomes for people. He stepped down as Root Cause's chief executive in 2020.
His Finding Common Purpose Foundation seeks to shift the attention of philanthropy, government, and other institutions toward measurable outcomes in Americans' lives. It supports community-based efforts to identify shared goals, track progress publicly, and coordinate resources and institutional action toward achieving them. Its approach grew out of Wolk's examination of more than 500 place-based organizations.
In his Common Purpose: Building a Movement to Renew the American Promise earlier this year--consciously modeled on Thomas Paine's Common Sense on the 250th anniversary of American independence--Wolk makes the case for what he calls an "Outcomes Movement." Despite enormous public and philanthropic expenditures, he argues, too many working Americans remain unable to afford the necessities of a secure and flourishing life. "We cannot fix what we don't measure," he declares. He proposes judging national progress by whether more working Americans are actually thriving. He calls for a set of objectives and measurable results--particularly concerning wages, housing, child care, education, and health--to help inform that judgment.
Wolk was kind enough to join me for a recorded conversation earlier this month. In the first part of our discussion, which is here, he talks about his disillusionment with philanthropy and the nonprofit sector and his proposed "Outcomes Movement" to improve people's lives.
The just more than 15-minute audio file below is the second part, during which he discusses the professionalization of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, defends the work of individual charities, and looks forward to what he sees as an opportunity and an obligation for givers to reconsider their role in helping more Americans thrive.
Asked whether there's too much professionalization in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, Wolk honestly tells me, "It's hard for me to answer that question, to be perfectly honest."
Of his work on measurement, he candidly says, "I think that we contributed with others to an overcomplicated set of reporting systems for a nonprofit that I regret substantially. ... Seventy different grant reports, right? They all say the same thing, and nobody reads" them.
For grantmakers, Wolk agrees, "the temptations are just too high to not be humble because of the power differential" with grant applicants or grantees.
Then, asked whether nonprofits--as so many often urge--should be run more like businesses, Wolk says it depends on what one means with the question. Should a nonprofit "be financially sustainable" and "have a well-governed board? Then, yes." But "I am not saying that they, on an individual basis, need to be held accountable for" a return on investment or anything like that, "because it's just not possible...
"In some ways, you're helping me think through my critique," he says--which, he again cautions, "is probably not at an individual-nonprofit level. I actually think they're doing some of the most amazing work across the country." He distinguishes the effectiveness of groups providing direct assistance from the persistent social and economic conditions that make their assistance necessary. "Have we not recognized the enormous pressure, year after year, that grows and grows on them? That is a fundamental failure."
Has politicization, including of philanthropy and nonprofitdom, made it more difficult to find and pursue common purpose? It's often said, he acknowledges, that "we just need to get people to come together and talk ... and then we'll just get along better. And I just don't agree with that." He thinks that agreed-upon desired outcomes--on, say, more-affordable housing or child care--might provide a basis for cooperation among people who disagree about the policies needed to achieve them. "So we start on the outcomes. Let the debate begin."
Wolk explains how any communities and potential philanthropic partners that might be interested in working with the Finding Common Purpose Foundation can easily just approach it to explore any such opportunities to do so.
More broadly, as the long-awaited and -touted intergenerational transfer of wealth gets underway, Wolk sees an opportunity and an obligation for philanthropy to reconsider its role in helping more Americans enjoy the economic opportunities from which its donors have benefited. "We are going to see a wave," he says. "[T]he professionalization of philanthropy is going to ... go on steroids here. ...
"There is a unique moment for philanthropy to rethink its role," he concludes.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-giving-review-a-conversation-with-the-finding-common-purpose-foundations-andrew-wolk-part-2-of-2/
Perpetual Futures: A Primer
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The American Action Forum issued the following news release:
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Perpetual Futures: A Primer
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Since perpetual futures contracts were first approved for listing in the United States by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) earlier this year, the controversy over these financial instruments has only grown. In a new primer, Policy Fellow Oren Swagel examines how perpetual futures work and the controversies surrounding their regulation and sale in the United States.
* Perpetual futures contracts, or "perps," are financial derivatives with
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The American Action Forum issued the following news release:
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Perpetual Futures: A Primer
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Since perpetual futures contracts were first approved for listing in the United States by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) earlier this year, the controversy over these financial instruments has only grown. In a new primer, Policy Fellow Oren Swagel examines how perpetual futures work and the controversies surrounding their regulation and sale in the United States.
* Perpetual futures contracts, or "perps," are financial derivatives withno expiration date that allow traders to hedge financial risk or speculate on an underlying asset's future price; unlike traditional futures contracts, perps use periodic payments between buyers and sellers to keep contract prices aligned with the underlying asset's market price.
* The CFTC has recently approved the sale of perpetual futures contracts tied to certain cryptocurrencies and equities, classifying the former as futures contracts and the latter as security futures contracts; these classifications subject these contracts to the existing regulation governing futures and security futures.
* Critics argue that the CFTC has misclassified these perps as futures and security futures rather than swaps and security-based swaps, respectively, allowing the companies offering these perps to unfairly benefit from less burdensome regulation and exposing retail investors to financial products with unusual and serious risks.
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Original text here: https://www.americanactionforum.org/press-release/perpetual-futures-a-primer/
New California legal opinion will clear a path for parametric insurance to help close protection gaps from extreme weather
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Ceres, a non-profit organization that is mobilizing companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and global sustainability challenges, posted the following news release:
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New California legal opinion will clear a path for parametric insurance to help close protection gaps from extreme weather
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BOSTON, MA: Ceres today welcomed a new General Counsel opinion letter from the California Department of Insurance clarifying how parametric insurance can be offered in the state's admitted market. Issued
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BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Ceres, a non-profit organization that is mobilizing companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and global sustainability challenges, posted the following news release:
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New California legal opinion will clear a path for parametric insurance to help close protection gaps from extreme weather
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BOSTON, MA: Ceres today welcomed a new General Counsel opinion letter from the California Department of Insurance clarifying how parametric insurance can be offered in the state's admitted market. Issuedin response to a Ceres request in July, the opinion gives insurers, communities, and consumers a clear legal framework for a tool that can deliver disaster payouts within days or weeks of a wildfire, flood, or extreme heat event.
Parametric insurance pays a set amount when a measurable trigger is met, such as a temperature threshold, a wind speed, or a flood level, rather than after a lengthy damage assessment. Used alongside traditional coverage, it can help households, small businesses, and local governments pay for evacuation, lost wages, and other costs that standard policies often leave out.
In the Ceres' 10-Point Plan for the Insurance Industry, parametric insurance and other emerging financial instruments are identified as innovative approaches that can provide faster payouts and a wider range of coverage options.
"Weather-related disasters are hitting California families, businesses, and local budgets harder every year, and too many of those costs fall outside traditional insurance," said Jaclyn de Medicci Bruneau, Ceres' director of insurance. "This opinion gives insurers the clarity they need to bring parametric products to market and gives consumers the protections they deserve. California has done the groundwork and put strong guardrails in place. Now the opportunity is to put this tool to work for the communities that need it most."
The approach is already protecting people and ecosystems around the world. In India, a heat insurance program run by a trade group and nonprofit helps outdoor workers cover lost income when temperatures spike. In Mexico and Hawaii, reef insurance policies held by The Nature Conservancy pay out after hurricanes so local teams can quickly repair damaged coral -- most recently when Hurricane Lala triggered Hawai`i's policy this year.
California has been laying out the groundwork since 2019. Commissioner Ricardo Lara's Climate Insurance Working Group recommended parametric coverage in its 2021 report. The California Department of Insurance has since supported a community-based parametric flood insurance pilot in Isleton, a coastal resilience and insurance effort in Imperial Beach, extreme heat coverage for Los Angeles' street vendors, and research into insuring urban forests.
"Since 2019, we have pushed for creative solutions to protect Californians from the growing costs of climate change. Parametric insurance can get money into people's hands quickly after a disaster, when they need it most," said California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. "This opinion makes clear that when these products are insurance, they will be held to California's consumer protection standards, so people know what they are buying and rates are fair."
The opinion letter builds on that work by answering a threshold question: when is a parametric product insurance? Under the opinion, a product qualifies when it meets three criteria -- the buyer has an insurable interest, the product genuinely transfers risk, and the buyer can show proof of loss. Products that qualify fall under CDI oversight, the California Insurance Code and, where applicable, Proposition 103, including prior approval of rates.
The letter also sets out best practices to protect consumers:
* Transparency: Triggers based on objective, verifiable third-party data, with payout terms a reasonable buyer can understand.
* Minimizing basis risk: High-quality data and modeling, periodic recalibration as climate risks change, and marketing parametric coverage as a complement to -- not a replacement for -- traditional insurance.
* Consumer protection: Clear upfront disclosure that a payout may not match actual losses, and marketing that does not mislead.
* Data integrity and dispute resolution: Documented trigger calculations and data sources, plus audit and appeal rights for policyholders.
* Regulatory oversight: The same prudential standards as traditional insurance and complete rate filings reviewed before products are sold.
With this framework in place, the next Insurance Commissioner, who takes office in January 2027, will be responsible for reviewing parametric insurance rate filings and overseeing these products as they come to market. California joins New York and Puerto Rico in formally recognizing parametric insurance.
"Recovery is fastest when resources arrive before a crisis turns into a long-term setback,' said Newsha Ajami, founding director, Program on Governance for Risk, Resilience, and Recovery (GR3), Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. "Parametric insurance, built on reliable data and independent, clear triggers, can help communities bridge the financial gap between a disaster and the longer process of rebuilding. California's framework offers a model for how to pair financial innovation with accountability, integrating a new tool into the state's comprehensive disaster recovery strategy."
The full opinion letter is available here.
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Original text here: https://www.ceres.org/resources/news/new-california-legal-opinion-will-clear-a-path-for-parametric-insurance-to-help-close-protection-gaps-from-extreme-weather (TNSmlt) (TNSmrp)
Material Shortages in the German Electronics Industry Worsen
MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- ifo Institute posted the following news release:
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Material Shortages in the German Electronics Industry Worsen
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* Material Shortages in the German Electronics Industry Worsen
The German electronics industry is finding it increasingly difficult to stock up on intermediate products. Among manufacturers of data processing equipment and electronic and optical products, 41.5% of companies reported bottlenecks in October, up from 37.8% in September. "The supply of materials is becoming a problem in parts of the electronics industry," says Klaus
... Show Full Article
MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- ifo Institute posted the following news release:
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Material Shortages in the German Electronics Industry Worsen
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* Material Shortages in the German Electronics Industry Worsen
The German electronics industry is finding it increasingly difficult to stock up on intermediate products. Among manufacturers of data processing equipment and electronic and optical products, 41.5% of companies reported bottlenecks in October, up from 37.8% in September. "The supply of materials is becoming a problem in parts of the electronics industry," says KlausWohlrabe, Head of Surveys at ifo. "A lack of intermediate products can slow down production particularly in an industry with strong demand."
One possible reason for the material bottlenecks is the high global demand for electronic components triggered by the expansion of AI infrastructure. According to industry reports, companies reported increasing supply problems, particularly with printed circuit boards. By contrast, the share of affected companies among manufacturers of electrical equipment fell from 27.4 to 25.3% but also remained at a high level. "The global AI boom could make it increasingly difficult to procure electronic components," says Wohlrabe. "When it comes to key components, companies are competing with major technology companies for limited production capacities."
In German industry as a whole, materials were once again in short supply in October. 15.6% of companies reported a lack of intermediate products, up from 14.6% in September. The situation worsened particularly in the automotive industry, where 24.1% of companies recently reported material bottlenecks, up from the previous 8.9%. In mechanical engineering, the figure rose to 19.6%, up from 16.3%. The situation eased in the chemical industry, where the share fell from 18.0 to 12.3%.
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Original text here: https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2026-11-13/material-shortages-german-electronics-industry-worsen
Liberty In Action Weekly: The (Small) Data Center Strikes Back
PHOENIX, Arizona, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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Liberty In Action Weekly: The (Small) Data Center Strikes Back
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It's the dream of many budding entrepreneurs: to start and grow a small business that serves the local community. That's just what Joshua Rhines was doing in Missoula, Mont., with his small tech firm, CubCloud AI--until city leaders decided that businesses like his are the wrong kinds of businesses. Now, the Goldwater Institute is challenging a Missoula ordinance that effectively bans Rhines from growing his business anywhere
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PHOENIX, Arizona, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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Liberty In Action Weekly: The (Small) Data Center Strikes Back
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It's the dream of many budding entrepreneurs: to start and grow a small business that serves the local community. That's just what Joshua Rhines was doing in Missoula, Mont., with his small tech firm, CubCloud AI--until city leaders decided that businesses like his are the wrong kinds of businesses. Now, the Goldwater Institute is challenging a Missoula ordinance that effectively bans Rhines from growing his business anywherein the city.
Rhines followed all the rules when it came to growing CubCloud, a small firm that provides AI and cloud computing infrastructure to local businesses. He invested nearly $2 million to establish its facilities with designs that complied with existing zoning. But in their zeal to ban data centers (CubCloud is a data center, albeit a very, very small one) Missoula leaders changed the rules, limiting data centers to a type of zoning that doesn't even exist in the city. The problem: that's a violation of Montana's Right to Compute Act, a new law that requires government restrictions on computational resources to be "demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored" to address an actual problem.
The Goldwater Institute's lawsuit against the city of Missoula is the first case of the new Big Sky Legal Project, a joint initiative with the Frontier Institute in Montana. Through this partnership and others, Goldwater will continue to defend free enterprise and property rights in Montana and around the nation.
Read more here.
It's pretty simple: legislatures pass laws and executive agencies enforce them. But the bird brains at the Arizona Department of Agriculture don't seem to get it--a few years back they imposed an expensive new rule, without legislative authorization, mandating that all eggs sold in the state come from cage-free hens. The Goldwater Institute and the Pacific Legal Foundation sued, and in a win for the separation of powers, an Arizona judge struck down this gross example of administrative state overreach.
When they adopted the "cage-free" egg rule, Agriculture Department bureaucrats insisted they were authorized to impose it under a law that gives the agency power to "adopt rules for poultry husbandry and the production of eggs." That language is so broad, there would seemingly be no stopping the department from imposing almost any rule. But an Arizona law--which Goldwater helped write and pass--limits administrative power by making it clear that agencies can't make rules "not specifically authorized by statute." In a recent ruling, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed that the department's cage-free egg rule is not "specifically authorized" and must go.
The Goldwater Institute has long argued that the administrative state may be the largest threat to constitutional democracy in the country. This ruling provides a perfect example of how we can begin to rein in administrative state power.
Read more here.
What's the difference between a sign and a mural? The city of Salina, Kan., claims that signs "direct attention" to businesses and can be regulated. That was their reasoning for opposing a painting on the side of a local burger joint while allowing many other murals all around town. A three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court has now struck down Salina's ordinance, agreeing with the Goldwater Institute that it violates free-speech rights.
The city of Salina is full of murals--it actually hosts an annual mural competition. But the city objected to a local restauranteur's amusing mural of UFO-like hamburgers engaged in a space battle because it "directs attention" to his business. But other murals--a baseball mural on a baseball training facility, a "Symphony of Sunflowers" mural at orchestra hall--also direct attention to things. The restauranteur sued, represented by the Kansas Justice Institute, and Goldwater filed a friend of the court brief backing him. The Tenth Circuit panel agreed that the city's ordinance was arbitrary and clearly unconstitutional.
There is nothing in the Constitution that says "commercial" speech is entitled to less protection than "non-commercial" speech. The Goldwater Institute will always defend the free speech of business owners--and every American.
Read more here.
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Original text here: https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/liberty-in-action-weekly-the-small-data-center-strikes-back/
COP31: Better understanding of vulnerability needed to protect against dangers of extreme weather
BRIGHTON, England, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Institute of Development Studies, an organization that conducts research, learning and teaching that aims to transform the knowledge, action and leadership needed for equitable and sustainable development globally, posted the following news:
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COP31: Better understanding of vulnerability needed to protect against dangers of extreme weather
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With world leaders meeting at COP31 this week, IDS researchers warn that protecting the most vulnerable from extreme weather - made more frequent and intense by climate change - needs more than
... Show Full Article
BRIGHTON, England, Nov. 13 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Institute of Development Studies, an organization that conducts research, learning and teaching that aims to transform the knowledge, action and leadership needed for equitable and sustainable development globally, posted the following news:
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COP31: Better understanding of vulnerability needed to protect against dangers of extreme weather
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With world leaders meeting at COP31 this week, IDS researchers warn that protecting the most vulnerable from extreme weather - made more frequent and intense by climate change - needs more thantechnical solutions such as early warning systems.
Instead, greater emphasis needs to be placed on navigating social conditions and overcoming systemic challenges - for example, understanding the underlying factors that create vulnerability to extreme weather, making warnings relevant to people's circumstances, and building resilience in the institutions that enable action.
Extreme weather is no longer a future risk. Climate change fuelled record temperatures across the world this year, bringing drought and more frequent and severe storms and floods. Wildfires also raged across Europe and elsewhere, with fires currently burning across Indonesia.
As the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts that a strong El Nino will make 2027 the hottest year yet, discussions are turning to adaptation and heat protection strategies. IDS researcher Annie Wilkinson argues that whilst exposure to extreme heat is partly meteorological, that vulnerability to heat, is also driven by social, economic and political factors.
Build heat protection into everyday lives
Two IDS research projects (If Cities Could Speak and Urban Futures) examine dimensions of vulnerability in informal urban settlements and have repeatedly shown how risks accumulate in particular places and lives. Heat adds another layer to these existing pressures, it is not a separate hazard.
Annie Wilkinson, research fellow, IDS, says:
"A warning cannot overcome unsafe housing or the need to earn a living, and identifying those at risk does not itself secure the support they need.
"During COP31, growing recognition of extreme heat must therefore lead to more than a proliferation of plans, technologies and warning systems: it must change the conditions that leave some people unable to protect themselves."
Wilkinson recommends that along with improving heat data, forecasting and early warnings, and strengthening the evidence on which interventions work, institutions need clear responsibilities and capabilities to act on that knowledge. In addition, protection from extreme heat must be built into everyday working conditions, housing and public services rather than it being treated as an intermittent emergency response.
Read the full IDS Opinion by Annie Wilkinson on why 'Coping with extreme heat requires more than technical solutions.'
Climate preparedness for the most vulnerable
Shibaji Bose, an independent consultant and Shilpi Srivastava, IDS Research Fellow, who work on research sites in India also point out that hazards, such as extreme heat, "overlap with changing livelihoods, uneven infrastructure, social inequalities and fragmented administrative responsibilities". They argue that this mix of climate change and human caused factors is increasingly impacting the most vulnerable.
Building on the point that COP31 needs to provide action beyond technological solutions, Bose recommends that to support those most vulnerable to climate extremes, climate finance must fund the maintenance, staffing, coordination and institutional learning around infrastructure or technology. For example, an early-warning network will only work as well as the institutions and people responsible for maintaining it.
These are the early findings being drawn from the RELIABLE project, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, and led by Shilpi Srivastava, which is reimagining preparedness under climate extremes - including heatwaves. Working in sites in India and the UK, the project is exploring and testing strategies for climate preparedness that are particularly attuned to the uncertainties causes by changing climate and environmental factors, and social and political factors, that people live with on an everyday basis.
Read the full IDS Opinion by Shibaji Bose and Shilpi Srivastava about 'Why climate action at COP31 and beyond must be built on reliability'.
Create more heat-resilient communities
Understanding which heat adaptations work best in different settings is a key priority, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
HeatNexus is a network of nine projects which IDS supports in areas such as cross-project learning and research synthesis - to ensure that the collective knowledge from across the network makes the biggest difference as possible for communities most vulnerable to rising global temperatures.
The projects In Africa, are testing interventions such as cool, reflective roofs, natural ventilation and urban greening to understand what happens when solutions meet local realities, housing types and populations.
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Original text here: https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/cop31-better-understanding-of-vulnerability-needed-to-protect-against-dangers-of-extreme-weather/
