You don’t have to prohibit development to stop people from building in disaster-prone areas. You just have to make it more expensive, a new study says.
The federal government has for decades subsidized development in places that frequently get pummeled by storms, wildfires and flooding. The National Flood Insurance Program writes roughly 90 percent of flood policies in the U.S., and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2023 gave nearly $12 billion to local governments to rebuild infrastructure damaged by natural disasters.
New research shows cutting off that type of support in the most climate-exposed areas could reduce development significantly — and save taxpayer dollars — by increasing costs to rebuild.
“As sea levels rise, tidal flooding worsens, and coastal storms become more frequent and severe, limiting the number of people and properties in harm’s way will be key to managing climate damages,” says the study, published Monday in Nature Climate Change.
