Climate Proofers

What makes a company an "adaptation play?" It's a question Chris Goolgasian, Director of Climate Research and portfolio manager at the $1.2trn investment company Wellington Management, has devoted himself to in recent years. Chris oversees an investmen...

How can video games drive climate resilience? Could Minecraft and Fortnite teach kids (and adults) about adapting to extreme temperatures and other punishing climate risks? Jorge Gastelumendi, Senior Director at the Atlantic Council's Climate Resilienc...

While the Los Angeles fires continue to rage, the debate on what should be done — and indeed what can be done — to prepare and protect communities from these kinds of infernos is heating up. The multiple blazes are also highlighting the frightening pot...

There's one thing all adaptation professionals agree on — we need more climate data. And better climate data. And climate data people can trust. But needing is one thing. Getting is another. Julia Kumari Drapkin is pioneering a new way of collecting an...

Climate adaptation technology isn't getting a lot of love from markets right now. Extreme weather shocks may be on track to inflict some US$560bn or so of losses on listed companies every year by 2035, but so far very little early investor money is goi...

"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 referenc...

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. ...

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, agre...

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...

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...

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 Ins...

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 happ...

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 organizatio...

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 ...

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 c...

Catastrophe (or 'cat') models are essential tools for estimating losses from natural disasters. With the rise of climate risk management as a discipline in its own right, efforts are underway to harness these tools to guess the effects of human-induced...

Kathryn Brown is a true climate adaptation veteran. For the last three years, she's been tackling climate change impacts with The Wildlife Trusts, a federation of UK charities focused on making a positive difference to wildlife and future generations. ...

Bill Green is a veteran infrastructure investor, one who understands that we need to change our approach to building (and financing) the basic facilities and systems that undergird our daily lives in response to rising climate impacts. As Managing Part...

Extreme heat wrecks lives and livelihoods throughout the Global South. Women are especially vulnerable to high temperatures because of an array of physiological, cultural, and economic factors – but also find it harder to access the resources needed to...

Michael Berkowitz is spreading the gospel of climate resilience across academic disciplines, communities, and industries. As Executive Director of the Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami, he's responsible for driving problem-driven re...

There are few champions of the adaptation economy with a resume like Jay Koh. The storied investor racked up years in the financial industry before serving as Chief Investment Strategist at what is now the US International Development Finance Corporati...

Technology is crucial in the effort to prepare for, and protect from, climate risks. However, we're still in the early stages of figuring out how to think about climate adaptation technology (or 'CAT') as an investment category – and how to direct earl...

Africa is a magnet for climate risks – from floods to droughts to storms like Tropical Cyclone Freddy, which displaced half a million people in Malawi last year. However, the continent's vulnerability has also made it a hotbed of climate adaptation. Th...

US home insurers suffered their worst underwriting loss this century in 2023, as claims came pouring in for storms, floods, wildfires, and more. Inflation and the crowding of high-risk areas contributed to the red ink, but extreme weather events were a...

In May, climate proofers from across the world gathered in New York for Adapt Unbound USA, a pioneering conference on the emerging adaptation economy. Experts from tech, finance, and policy held forth on topics ranging from how to prepare cities for cl...