How Climate Change Will Destroy Your Country’s Credit Rating

It is a bitter irony that rising seas, severe drought and violent storms associated with climate change will slam the world’s poorest nations that consume the least energy per capita. Changing weather patterns will also hit national credit ratings, raising borrowing costs for investment in infrastructure like dams or post-disaster rebuilding, notes a report from Standard & Poor’s. “S&P has yet to change any country’s credit rating based on its vulnerability to climate change, noting that the complexity of the phenomenon makes it difficult to assess the specific impact on any one nation,” reports Todd Woody for the Atlantic. “Yet clearly the rating agency is thinking about it.” Woody’s article includes maps and graphs that show the stark inequality in impacts from climate change. The report also lists factors for vulnerability to climate change including what percentage of the population lives in coastal areas, agriculture as a percentage of GDP, and ability to adapt. S&P suggests that climate change will become increasingly visible, dangerous and felt by all. – YaleGlobal