<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div style="font-size: 14px;"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div data-hveid="CAIQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwib-o_c2aPiAhWqFTQIHbV_DNgQFSgAMAp6BAgCEAA" class=""><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Climate risks aren’t just for the kids</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; min-height: 17px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Over the past few years, an increasing number of observers have stress that pension funds are exposed to climate risk from our daily combustion of fossil fuels. Even some politicians have been aware of this risk. Already, lawmakers have passed law requiring that California pension funds consider climate-related financial risk when making investments <<<a href="https://www.ipe.com/news/esg/biggest-us-pension-funds-must-consider-climate-related-risks-updated/10026446.fullarticle" class=""><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class="">https://www.ipe.com/news/esg/biggest-us-pension-funds-must-consider-climate-related-risks-updated/10026446.fullarticle</span></a>>>. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Alas, most states lag far behind.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; min-height: 17px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Worse, the risk to pension funds hasn’t been the only story of adult and elderly exposure to the effects of firing up the fossil fuels. For example, the insurance industry is in the early stages of cancelling policies it issued to homeowners in fire- and flood-prone areas. Homeowners might not see fire- or flood-risk coming, but the insurance companies do. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">So homes don’t even need to burn or get flooded for their policies to get cancelled. Cancellations are just in an early stage, but policies related to fire risk have already been cancelled in California. Closer to home, policies have already been cancelled in forested NE Washington state —even for property that hasn’t been burned down. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; min-height: 17px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Uninsurable homes will not sell well, if at all. They may actually end up worthless. So much for the idea that a home is an investment. If not already paid off, the owners will end up owing money on a home that has no real market value. Montana homeowners won’t be immune.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; min-height: 17px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class=""><span style="color: #000000" class="">The banking and real estate industries may know all this better than homeowners do. For example, mortgages are already harder to get in regions at risk from the likes of fire. The real estate industry isn’t blind to these risks. </span><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">On June 20, 2019 Commercial Property Executive magazine asked an executive of real estate development company if the industry has recognized the links from climate change to property values. He replied yes, especially in the past five years, and added that “Climate change is going to kill values for investors who are caught off guard, without a plan in place.”</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana;" class="">Our local real estate agents may be as blind to the risk as any homeowner, but their any lack of knowledge isn’t matched with major players in the real estate game. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">Home risk aside, the adult world is at least some risk because the stock market faces risks of its own. </span><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Research from the University of California, Davis, finds episodes of extremely hot weather lead to declines in market value. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">“These findings of a negative market response imply that the equity market recognizes but underprices weather-related climate risk,” said Paul Griffin, an accounting professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The study, to be published in the December issue of <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS2212094719300817&esheet=52122051&newsitemid=20191104005153&lan=en-US&anchor=Weather+and+Climate+Extremes&index=1&md5=0193ea22708811e480fa1ca89aad33b0" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(121, 162, 189); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(121, 162, 189);" class=""><b class=""><i class="">Weather and Climate Extremes</i></b></span></a> and available online now, is one of the first to examine and quantify the impact of physical climate risk on corporate market values.</span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>