Bloomberg: “Removing US Subsidies Curbed Building in Climate Risk Zones, Study Finds”
A new paper in Nature Climate Change about a policy to slow development in at-risk coastal areas is the subject of this story.
The US Congress passed the Coastal Barrier Resources Act in 1982 to preserve relatively undeveloped waterfront areas as natural buffer zones...
It worked, according to a new study in Nature Climate Change that assesses the impact of the law.
Hannah Druckenmiller, the lead author, said the study offers a policy prescription for other at-risk parts of the country.
“We continue to see large increases in development in floodplains, including both coastal areas and inland floodplains. And we continue to see lots of development in wildfire-prone areas,” said Druckenmiller, an environmental economist at the California Institute of Technology and a fellow at Resources for the Future, a research nonprofit. “Those are two locations in the US where we could actually implement similar policies when we’re thinking about how we preempt development.”
