Yellen warns inaction on climate could cause economic crisis

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday of economic calamity if climate change is not addressed with immediate government intervention.

Joined by local business owners and prominent Democrats in North Carolina, Yellen said the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters could create devastating short-term supply reductions of everyday goods that could cause prices to skyrocket.

Supply chain disruptions like those experienced on a global scale during the COVID-19 pandemic could soon become commonplace, she said during a visit to Cypress Creek Renewables' solar farm in Chapel Hill.

“Here in North Carolina, you remember well the devastating toll of Hurricane Florence. That disaster killed 22 Americans. It led to $24 billion in damage and left a million North Carolinians without power," Yellen said.

As North Carolina is gearing up for several tight races in November, Yellen pitched the benefits of Democrats’ new climate, health and tax law, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, that will spend $375 billion over the next decade on climate-related investments.

Combined with last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law, the investments total more than $430 billion. The money will be spent on everything from providing tax credits to purchasers of qualifying electric vehicles to constructing clean-manufacturing facilities.

Yellen said spending will be particularly impactful in “non-coastal communities that have suffered from disinvestment."

Some North Carolinians who lost their homes in Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 are still waiting on repairs or permanent housing accommodations, due in large part to supply and labor shortages brought on by the pandemic, according to the state's disaster recovery agency.

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