Climate Proofers

"Climate change" is likely to become taboo under the second Trump administration. The incoming president believes global warming to be a "hoax", and Project 2025 – the right-wing blueprint for his second term – calls for erasing climate change references from absolutely everywhere.

​However, climate-related disasters will not go away just because the federal government refuses to accept their root causes. There is, and will continue to be, a need for policies, finance, and innovation to address climate impacts to communities and businesses, and to adapt to higher temperatures and more frequent weather extremes.

​How will climate adaptation and resilience evolve under the new administration? How could state and local governments step up to better climate-proof their constituents? And how might private investors and startups dedicated to adaptation and resilience adjust their strategies in a transformed policy space?

These questions and more were answered by an expert panel at the first Climate Proof Adaptation Salon, held in New York City on December 4. This edited recording of that conversation is bursting with insights and opinion on the path ahead, with a fair dose of optimism mixed in despite the rather ominous tone emanating from the Trump transition team.

Speakers:

​Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Co-owner and Principal, Two Degrees Adapt

​Jeff Schlegelmilch, Director at National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute, Columbia University

​Daniel Murphy, Risk & Resilience Specialist, World Economic Forum

​Stacy Swann, Resilient Earth Capital

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

Wildfires are on the rampage across North America.

Canada and the US are battling blazes more often and for longer periods. This fall, wildfires have burnt on East and West Coasts alike. Even New York City, that vaunted concrete jungle, has succumbed.

The increase in frequency and ferocity of these disasters is one of climate change's most harrowing consequences, and is spurring governments and businesses to do more to fight back.

Today's Climate Proofer is part of this effort. Jonathan Bowers is the founder of Path & Focus, a Canada-based firetech company committed to improving access to actionable wildfire data and analytics.

He talks with Louie about the scale of the wildfire challenge in Canada, the value in making wildfire maps and simulations available to communities and government authorities at speed, and the gaps in the current firetech ecosystem.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

How did COP29 advance (or obstruct) the climate adaptation agenda?

While the conference produced a controversial new climate finance goal, this had little to offer developing countries working to climate-proof their populations. On the other hand, agreement on a way forward for the Global Goal on Adaptation, a central plank of the Paris Agreement, offers hope that countries will be better able to measure adaptation progress – and demand the finance, expertise, and technologies they need to round out their national adaptation plans.

In this episode, Louie is joined by Ana Mulio Alvarez, a researcher focused on the UNFCCC, adaptation, and Loss and Damage at the international think tank E3G. Ana was on the ground at Baku for the entirety of the Baku summit, and has unparalleled insight into the adaptation and resilience negotiations that took place.

She unpacks her adaptation wins and fails of COP29, and offers her expert opinion on whether these summits are still worth the struggle.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

Investment professionals can't bury their heads in the sand when it comes to climate risks. Extreme weather shocks are inflicting billions in losses to physical assets and businesses — losses that flow through to financial instruments like bonds, loans, and equities.

By the same token, they shouldn't sleep on adaptation. Investors who bet on climate-proofed companies can lower the overall exposure of their portfolios to worsening storms, floods, and wildfires. They can also capture underpriced opportunities by investing in those businesses providing adaptation goods and services to global markets.

Impax Asset Management is an investment company that gets this. In today's episode, Julie Gorte — Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing — talks about how she engages with the adaptation and resilience theme, and how her company has gone about engaging with portfolio companies on their own climate resilience.

As a bonus, we also unpack the potential implications of Trump 2.0 on the climate investment space in the US, and touch on ways in which political discontent can harm efforts to build resilience.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

Parametric insurance is all the rage in climate resilience circles. This is a financial product that pays out to policyholders upon a triggering event – like after a certain amount of rainfall hits an area, or if temperatures exceed a certain threshold for a number of consecutive days.

Nakita Devlin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ric, a parametric insurance startup that caters to individuals caught in rainfall-induced flooding events. She talks with Louie about the current vogue for this type of insurance, why established carriers and startups alike are excited by its potential, and the tech and policy hurdles – and opportunities – she faces.

Nakita also discusses how parametric insurance fits in with the broader ecosystem of climate solutions, and the importance of community-based resilience.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

The insurance industry is on the front lines of climate risk. In order to write profitable policies in high-risk zones, carriers need data and insights that give them an edge – and customers who know how to build climate resiliency.

Enter Faura, an InsurTech startup co-founded by today's guest, Valkyrie Holmes. Her team have pioneered a new way to produce "survivability" assessments – a measure of a property's resilience to natural disasters – that has caught the attention of both insurers and real estate professionals looking to navigate an increasingly hazardous market.

Valkyrie unpacks the concept of "survivability" and its importance to those writing and seeking insurance, and explains how Faura's assessments empower homeowners to proactively reduce their own risk. She also reflects on the insurance industry's appetite for innovation and the challenges involved piloting a disruptive startup in a heavily regulated and complex sector.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

London has sustained a barrage of climate shocks in recent years – from devastating heat waves to flash flooding and a string of "rain bombs".

The metropolis has to defend itself against these shocks. As the engine of the UK economy, anything that happens to the capital reverberates throughout the country. Hence the London Climate Resilience Review, a first-of-its-kind analysis commissioned by Mayor Sadiq Khan and chaired by today's guest, Emma Howard Boyd CBE.

The Review, published earlier this year, assesses the UK capital's climate resilience and makes over 50 recommendations on preparing the city for worsening climate impacts. Emma puts the Review in context, takes us through some of the top recommendations, and highlights the importance of joined-up governance and the sharing of best practices across cities to building long-lasting resilience.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

City leaders are up to their necks in climate risks. They need help to harden their people and places against floods, storms, and heat waves.

Why not call Adam Freed? Today's Climate Proofers guest is a Principal at Bloomberg Associates, an organization which provides adaptation and resilience consulting to Mayors and their staff – pro bono.

Adam breaks down the reasons why cities are susceptible to climate shocks – from outdated infrastructure to rapid urban growth – and the changes in governance and governing that could help scale resilience solutions.

He also shares some success stories, like London's flood prevention efforts and Phoenix's ambitious shade plan, and touts the opportunities for governments, businesses, and startups that are piling into the urban resilience space.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected] 

Cities are magnets for climate risks. We've designed metropolises that intensify hazards like floods and extreme heat, and have to nurture and scale solutions to address their impacts – fast.

Hence the importance of accelerators: programs that support the rapid growth of new technologies for addressing climate change. Michael Jacobs oversees the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, which works to scale climate solutions from nonprofits and governmental agencies using IBM technology and AI know-how.

To date, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator has supported 15 global projects across three active cohorts focused on sustainable agriculture, clean energy, and water management. The focus of its latest cohort? Resilient cities.

Michael joins Climate Proofers to discuss how the Accelerator got its start, how participants benefit, and the massive potential of AI to build more climate-resilient cities.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]

Climate change is injecting volatility into geopolitics, with worrying implications for international relations and the (already fraying) rules-based order. Physical climate risks also have the potential to catalyze future geopolitical shocks – which could in turn lead to armed conflicts between nations.

Alan Leung works at the global financial institution Macquarie Group as head of the threat intelligence team, and writes the informative newsletter Securing Our Climate, which focuses on the intersection of climate change, security, geopolitics, and finance. He joins Climate Proofers to discuss the climate impacts he believes could upend global security, highlight the new geopolitical fault lines that could open up as the world warms, and describe the collision of climate change and corporate operational risk management.

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Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]