Florida Leads Nation in Property at Risk from Climate Change

Florida has more private property at risk from flooding linked to climate change than any other state, an amount that could double in the next four decades, according to a new report by the Risky Business Project.

By 2030, $69 billion in coastal property in Florida could flood at high tide that is not at risk today, the report found.  That amount is projected to climb to $152 billion by 2050.

While projections for rising seas are not new, for the first time researchers tried to quantify the economic damage wrought by climate change by better understanding the risks to business and a rebounding economy.  Growth in manufacturing and energy production have created a mini boom in the Southeast and Texas, the report said.  But climate change threatens to undo that progress and cause widespread damage to the region’s economic pillars:  manufacturing, agriculture and energy.

For Florida, the blows are significant and not only for property.  Higher temperatures and rising seas could slow labor productivity, stress the energy industry and dry up cash pumped into the state by tourists.

“The sea-rise numbers are out there.  The heat numbers are out there.  What this study has done for the first time is really look at this from a business perspective,” former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who co-chaired the project, said in an interview with the Miami Herald.

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