New Fletcher Lab Paper Published in Nature Sustainability

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Excited to share our lab’s new paper in Nature Sustainability!

“Urban water affordability crisis exacerbated by climate change” was led by the fantastic Jennifer Skerker, with Christian Klassert, Baptiste Francois, Aniket Verma, Casey Brown, and Sarah Fletcher.

We estimate how climate change will affect household water affordability using a modeling framework that integrates climate, infrastructure, financing, rate design, and demand.

Key findings from our Santa Cruz case study:

💧 Water bills could double under severe climate change scenarios
💧 The share of households facing unaffordable water could rise from 19% to 35%

Cities vulnerable to water stress may face far more severe affordability challenges than previously estimated. The scale of the challenge underscores the need for state and federal support for affordability programs and infrastructure financing.

The study has also received major media coverage from Bloomberg, E&E News, and Stateline, and is featured in a video produced by Stanford Woods.