Fwd: Taming monster floods

[Loretta Lohman]

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There’s big business in climate adaptation. Investing in resilience is projected to become a $1.3 trillion market spanning every sector of the economy. Today’s newsletter looks at what cities from Tokyo to Nairobi are doing to flood-proof themselves. You can watch it all on the latest episode of Bloomberg Primer. And this week’s Zero podcast gets heated as Reform UK leader Richard Tice “fundamentally” rejects the science behind climate change. Subscribe to Bloomberg for unlimited access to all our stories. How to flood-proof cities By Emily Biuso The planet is warming faster than ever, and as it does, extreme weather is intensifying. Of those events, almost half involve flooding. So to protect the world’s coastal cities and the hundreds of millions who live in them, engineers are creating some unique—and in many cases colossal—solutions. Everything from space shuttle-sized flood tunnels to a seawall hundreds of miles long. “If you look at a river in a dry period, it’s gentle, it’s nice. But overnight, it becomes like this monster,” said Victor Coenen, a project manager with engineering firm Witteveen + Bos. “This huge deluge of water destroying houses, killing people; How do you control this? How do you tame this monster?” On this episode of Bloomberg Primer, we reveal some of the answers, which are as surprising as they are innovative. The business of adaptation—investing in climate resilience—is projected to be a $1.3 trillion market. In “Flood-Proof Cities,” Bloomberg Primer explores the ways in which urban centers are adapting to meet this moment. In Saitama, just outside Tokyo, Japan has built the world’s largest underground flood tunnel system. Called the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, it protects the surrounding areas from floods by diverting water underground and pushing it out into a nearby river. The $2 billion project has been estimated to reduce flood damage by 90%. Jakarta, the fastest sinking megacity in the world, is no stranger to adaptation. Its seawalls absorb and deflect waves, but there are downsides: they can harm nature and local communities. Those climate defenses have not been the solution Indonesia’s leaders hoped for, so now the government is working on a new, $80 billion seawall project. Additionally, the Southeast Asian nation is designing a brand new capital city, Nusantara, that will be free of Jakarta’s coastal flooding challenges. Smaller, more affordable projects can help mitigate flooding as well. In Nairobi, trash-eating flies are helping to stem rising waters during flash floods. Residents in the Mukuru area of the Kenyan capital are breeding millions of black soldier flies to consume garbage that collects in the city’s streets and clogs storm drains. While all of these projects can help protect cities from disasters, they won’t stop the root cause—or prevent it from getting worse. “The trick is to use the need to adapt to then also motivate us to cut emissions more,” said Gernot Wagner, climate economist for Columbia Business School. Bloomberg Primer cuts through the complex jargon to reveal the business behind technologies poised to transform global markets. This season explores where technological hype meets the realities of scale, cost and competition in a rapidly changing world. To see all episodes of Bloomberg Primer, click here. See the latest videos from Bloomberg Originals here. Climate-proof planet $1.3 trillion The estimated market for climate resilience Adaptation push “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives” Bill Gates Chair of the Gates Foundation and co-founder of Microsoft Anti-climate stance By Akshat Rathi and Olivia Rudgard The UK’s right-wing Reform party has a warning for investors: don’t bet on renewable energy projects awarded by the sitting Labour government. Reform has staked out a hardline position against renewable energy. It wants to ban battery storage, scrap net-zero targets, support fracking and offshore drilling, and end taxpayer-funded green subsidies. That includes contracts given out under the latest £1.8 billion offshore wind auction, known as AR7, according to deputy leader Richard Tice. Business Reform UK’s plan to end decades of climate action “I’m saying very clearly, and any investors listening to this, don’t invest in AR7, AR8 and beyond,” Tice said on Bloomberg Green’s Zero podcast. “We put people on notice. Invest in nuclear. Invest in gas. Invest in oil. Don’t invest in renewables.” The threat echoes steps the Trump administration has taken to halt major offshore wind projects in the US by buying out billion-dollar leases that had already been signed. The sudden reversals have led to pushback from companies and politicians who question the legal basis for blocking the projects. Richard Tice Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg The UK has been one of the biggest proponents of global action to tackle climate change since the late 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. If Reform ends up running the nation — and the party has momentum after winning the most seats in local elections held this month — it would be the first time in the modern era that the government would explicitly oppose policies to limit heating of the planet. Read more More from Green Mercedes unwraps an electric sports car The Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé’s three electric motors propel the model to a top speed of 186 miles an hour. But the car also simulates gear shifts and reproduces the throaty soundtrack of a V8 engine. Google’s ‘moonshot’ clean energy goal is intact A senior executive said the company isn’t abandoning plans to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. McDonald’s won’t meet some emissions goals “In many regions, growth in energy demand is outpacing the current speed of clean energy deployment,” the company said. BYD gets an edge from ships that brave war and outrun storms Big floating garages operated by BYD are part of a growing number of Chinese ships ferrying vehicles to overseas markets. Photo finish India’s high power costs put cooling out of reach India’s summers are becoming more unlivable almost every year, with the combination of heat and humidity rising in some areas to the limits of survivability. Temperatures are higher and heatwaves last longer, sapping productivity and raising the cost of caring for those who fall ill. Even nights are scorching, a predicament exacerbated by poor urban planning and social inequality. In the dusty heart of India, even the power equipment needs help to get through the peak of the summer. 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