Susan Crawford On How The US Government Is Failing Adaptation

The Trump White House is taking a hammer to the federal agencies, programs, and initiatives that promote climate adaptation and resilience.

As part of its chaotic effort to shrink the size of government and eliminate any and all climate work by the US government, Trump's team is gutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the country's premier climate agency, abolishing grants that states and cities use to build resilience against extreme weather events, and even directing government lawyers to go after state-level laws that promote climate mitigation and adaptation.

These policies all serve to undermine US climate readiness, and run counter to another Trump administration goal — making disaster preparedness and response a state, local, and individual responsibility, instead of something led from Washington, DC.

In today's episode, climate adaptation scholar Susan Crawford reflects on Trump's anti-climate policies to date and what they mean for the country. Susan is an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She writes regularly about the intersection of climate change and finance over on the Substack Moving Day. In 2009, she served as special assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.

Beyond policy, Susan talks about the financial architecture that underpins US climate resilience: municipal bonds and insurance markets. She warns of mounting risks in the muni bond market because of the current tariff chaos, potential tax policy changes, and investors' failure to figure climate hazards into their pricing. She also flags the slow-motion collapse of affordable insurance in high climate risk areas — and explains how local governments, desperate to protect their tax bases, are often incentivized to downplay or ignore escalating threats.

Whether you're a climate finance pro, work in local government, policy development, or climate risk analysis, this episode is essential listening.

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