People look at the Golden Gate Bridge at a vista point during a rainfall on January 15, 2023 in Sausalito, California.
Climate change poses a significant threat to the economies of U.S. cities, with metro areas like San Francisco, New York City and Phoenix among the most at risk of sea-level rise, extreme heat and water stress, according to a new report by Moody's Analytics.
The report, which assesses which cities are most vulnerable or resilient to climate change, calculates its forecasts based on two different risk categories — the long-term exposure to drought, extreme heat and sea-level rise, and the short-term exposure to hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
"Absent policy changes, large coastal states like California, Florida and New York are especially vulnerable, while more inland northern economies will emerge only slightly worse off, with a handful of small metro areas possibly benefiting slightly," wrote Adam Kamins, senior director at Moody's and author of the report.
Among the metro areas that are the worst off are San Francisco, California; Cape Coral, Florida; New York City, New York; Long Island, New York; Oakland, California; and Phoenix, Arizona, the report found.