Jupiter in the news

While much of the world is focused on decarbonization — as it should be — there is a significant looming and highly overlooked danger organizations face today, says Rich Sorkin of Jupiter Intelligence. And, he says, it’s one that can have significant effects on our global economy: physical climate risk.

“In some cases, homeowners won’t be able to get coverage, or they will have to pay more, or they will have less reliable coverage,” said Rich Sorkin, chief executive of Jupiter Intelligence, a climate risk analytics company.

“Forecasts for rapid intensification used to be rare, but as scientific knowledge and forecast skill continue to incrementally improve, we can expect to see more such forecasts,” said Rich Sorkin, chief executive of Jupiter Intelligence, which tracks climate risk.

Here’s how scientists measure the extreme temperatures currently scorching 44% of the world’s oceans. “You can kind of think of El Niño and La Niña as a toggle war in the tropical Pacific,” said Hillary Scannell, an oceanographer and data scientist at Jupiter Intelligence. With La Niña, “cold water gets upwelled along the South American coast and that cold ocean temperature kind of acts as air conditioning to the climate system.” Now that that’s over, El Niño is taking over with its warm waters, disrupting atmospheric circulation and weather worldwide.

Climate risk can be tough to quantify, but doing so has grown in importance due to regulatory attention and increased difficulty obtaining property insurance coverage for it. In response, Fannie Mae Chief Climate Officer Tim Judge is using his background in analytics and modeling to try to predict and address its impact on the government-sponsored enterprise's sizable mortgage portfolio.

A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires — and potentially billions of dollars in damages — is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities take if they fail to take proper precautions in a hotter, drier climate. Josh Hacker, chief science officer at Jupiter, said of lawsuit damages. “This is an enormous challenge. Now it’s biting them. And in the end it’s going to bite all of us, because they have to recover that expense.”

Jeff Ward, Jupiter's Global Public Sector Climate Account Executive, has been named one of WashingtonExec’s Top Climate Change Execs to Watch in 2023. The list highlights industry executives who are dedicated to creating solutions, building sustainable infrastructures, making geospatial data more accessible, and applying their environmental science expertise to help the White House on climate change initiatives.

A panel at Commercial Risk’s Construction Risk Management Europe conference highlighted how climate change is impacting construction risk management, noting how historical data is a poor indicator of future trends. Stuart Large, business development director at Jupiter, said that historical data might show a trend for higher weather-related losses over the last 20 or 30 years. But he added that given the pace of losses from most perils is accelerating, models are a much better indicator for future trends.

Fannie Mae revealed it has been working with a set of climate risk analytics from Jupiter Intelligence to assess its portfolio of over 17 million single- and multifamily assets to quantify the extent to which its holdings are exposed to potential damage from natural disasters.

Jupiter Launches Climate Data, Analytics and Technology Platform to Predict and Manage Weather and Climate Change Risks