Although the US infrastructure has barely passed, one of the fastest growing issues is climate change. The airport was flooded, the bridges were melting from extreme heat, and communications were hit by increasingly extreme weather.
In 2023, at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, historic rains transformed the runway into a river, shutting down operations and overseeing passengers. Last summer, in New York City, the Extreme Heat saw a large expansion of metal over the Harlem River bridge, leaving the bridge open.
All categories of US infrastructure are at increased risk from climate change. This is a discovery by the American Society of Civil Engineering, which trains engineers and informs federal, state and local building codes.
ASCE’s latest infrastructure report card gives the country a “C” grade, with climate-related challenges becoming widespread and impacting even regions that previously resisted these events.
“As we continue to see even more extreme weather events, our infrastructure has been not designed for these types of activities many times,” said Tom Smith, executive director of ASCE.
“Ice, snow, drought, heat, obviously hurricanes, tornadoes, we need to design all of that, and we need to predict where the pack is now.
The worst-performing sectors include airports, power and communications infrastructure. CNBC has asked First Street, a climate risk analysis company, to overlay risk modeling at these specific locations nationwide. We found that 19% of all power infrastructure, 17% of telecommunications infrastructure, and 12% of airports have a significant risk from floods, winds or wildfires.
Most US infrastructure was built decades ago and is designed for climates that no longer exist. This has a direct impact on investors in the infrastructure sector.
Sarah Kapnick, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is currently head of global climate advisory JP Morgan Chase, Her clients said they are increasingly craving the climate impact on investment.
“How do you change and invest in your infrastructure? What do you think about the differences in infrastructure, the differences in infrastructure construction? Should you think about insurance, different types of insurance? Kapnik said.
Kapnick and Smith said creating climate resistance in infrastructure is back to science.
“Climate and science are something we take very, very seriously, in collaboration with science and coupled with engineering to protect public health, safety and welfare,” Smith said.
But that science has been under attack, seeing deep cuts from the Trump administration, laying off hundreds of employees at NOAA, FEMA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“Many market or financial decisions are based on a specific data set that people thought was always there, so there’s this adjustment period as people understand where they get the information they need,” Kapnick said.
The country’s infrastructure also needs to be funded. ASCE is in good condition by estimating a $3.7 trillion spending gap over the next decade, and is now in good condition.
The Trump administration has ordered FEMA to cancel the resilient infrastructure and community programs for its nearly $1 billion building, including what is included in cutting spending so far.
