(2024-01-17) Steffen Getting The Memo On Climate Risk

Alex Steffen: Getting the Memo on Climate Risk. The chasm between the way things work now and how they’d need to work to thrive in this planetary crisis means that the systems that make our lives possible are woven through with massive, unattended risks. (climate change)

The economists and researchers who best understand these risks have been shouting to be heard from the fringes of the debate for years.

They’ve mostly encountered crisis triangulation from governments and major institutions

*That seems to be changing, now.

A new memorandum from the Biden Administration, “Tools to support the management of near-term macroeconomic and financial climate risks,” shows just how fast planetary reality has moved towards the center of serious discussion.*

It lays out a path towards getting economic models that accurately assess the magnitudes of risk presented by overvalued unsustainable and brittle assets and practices

Yes, time is short and the stakes are high

But recognition of discontinuity is the essential first step in responding to it.