Burns

• Burns will take the helm immediately, succeeding David Wald, who will continue to lead the organization as President and Co-Founder.
• Burns brings over 30 years of experience in the insurance, technology and risk management industries, having served as CEO of Ventiv Technology, a solution provider of risk, insurance and underwriting technology solutions, from 2006 to 2015.
• "Aclaimant stands at the forefront of transforming how businesses approach risk management" said Burns.
• Aclaimant aims to catalyze the coming mass adoption of risk management technologies for companies who want to protect what matters most.

• A Dallas County jury has awarded $30.7 million in damages to a local man who claimed he had been defrauded after he did not receive a share of operating profits from the owner of roughly 150 Popeyes franchise restaurants in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida.
• The jury initially returned a verdict of $15,618,873.47 in compensatory damages against Dallas-based Sun Holdings Inc., owner Guillermo Perales, and various subsidiaries.
• After a bifurcated trial, the jury returned another verdict of $15,100,000.00 in punitive damages.
• “The jury correctly concluded that Mr. Stockton had been defrauded by Mr. Perales and the other defendants.

• In 2023 the US was both the world’s largest producer of natural gas and its largest exporter of LNG, with exports that year totalling 86 million tons.
• On January 26, Biden announced a temporary pause on approvals of pending LNG projects until a review could be completed.
• Biden has not stopped exports from existing projects or construction work on future ones, whether or not they have the necessary approvals.
• The spotlight on US LNG exports is at least a chance to question whether gas should have a place in the energy transition.

Freedom LNG

• The Trump administration described US LNG exports as “molecules of freedom” in 2019 that could reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.
• The traditional LNG model tied producers and consumers into long-term contracts with destination clauses that constrained where LNG could be sold.
• Instead, US LNG is sold free on board, meaning buyers (other oil and gas companies, utility companies and traders) take ownership at the export terminal, arrange shipping and sell the LNG wherever they wish.
• Industry and energy thinktank analysis suggests that the liquidity of the global LNG market will be untouched by the pause.

US LNG exports to Europe are secure for now, but Europe has pledged to significantly reduce how much gas it burns. And so, there is a lot of uncertainty around gas demand in the 2030s and beyond.

Time to take our foot off the gas?

• If countries meet future energy demand with gas instead of coal, emissions will fall.
• However, other analyses highlight the methane that leaks from pipelines and suggest that gas may actually be worse for the climate than coal.
• If this happens, the LNG industry could be building production capacity for which there is no market.

Michael Bradshaw receives funding from the UK Energy System Research Programme and EPSRC in relation to his role as Co-Director for the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). He also advises the government, thinktanks and companies on energy matters.

• Existing diseases have been exacerbated by service interruptions, and people have lost their homes and livelihoods.
• It is a disaster mainly caused by our decisions and lack of preparation to deal with a more extreme climate hazard.
• As an academic disaster researcher from Chile, I think there are lessons we can learn from these fires.

Fire-prone conditions

• Meteorological conditions have made Chile very prone to fires this summer, especially in this long-and-thin country’s central region, where it is warm enough for fires yet wet enough for there to be vegetation to burn.
• Conditions were dry on top of a longer-term mega-drought, and relative humidity was low.
• It is very likely that these conditions have been influenced by El Niño, on top of human-induced climate change.

Formula for a (not natural) perfect disaster

• This is exactly what happened in Chile: a deadly combination of an extreme climate hazard and inadequate social preparation.
• Several antennas were affected by the fires and not properly working, so many people did not receive the message on time.
• This led to traffic jams and bottlenecks, some of which became engulfed in the middle of the fires.

Climate-related hazards shouldn’t turn disastrous

• However, the human health risks this poses can be reduced by adequate preparedness and response plans.
• Villa Botania, near the city of Quilpué in central Chile, emerged from these fires as an interesting example to learn from.
• This can save lives, as shown by the success since the 1970s of anti-seismic building regulations in this earthquake-prone country.

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Yasna Palmeiro Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.