Global Adaptation &
Resilience Investment
Working Group
not always identied as “adaptation
solutions.”
In addition to market opportunity,
climate resilience investments can
enhance the returns of decarbonization
investments. For example, hydropower
generation will need to incorporate new
data and analytics about increasing
drought conditions occurring as a
result of climate change. Failure
to incorporate projected drought
has already threatened renewable
hydropower generation in California.
22
Smart grid upgrades to support
intermittent renewable energy will
also have to address new spikes in
demand created by climate-enhanced
heat waves.
23
Climate modelling to
simulate increased wildre risk due to
hotter, drier conditions will be critical
to reducing the risk of wildres caused
by transmission and distribution
powerlines.
24
Supply chains will have to
both reduce their carbon intensity and
address potential disruptions caused by
more frequent and severe hurricanes,
storms, and wildres.
As investors scale capital into
decarbonization, investing in climate
resilience technologies and solutions
can safeguard and support the success
of those investments. Incorporating
climate change assumptions around
changes in wind patterns, cloud
cover, and water levels into renewable
energy projects can future-proof them
against increasing impacts of climate
change. Including sea level rise and
ooding analyses into the design of
energy efcient buildings can make
them better low carbon investments.
Developing climate smart agriculture
that is both less carbon intensive and
more resilient to drought and extreme
weather can generate both greater
food security and better long term
investment performance.
Climate resilience investments can
also help enable further investments
in biodiversity and nature-based
solutions. For example, investments
in climate risk data and analytics can
inform the design projects that support
biodiversity, agriculture and human
health. Geospatial data and imagery
can help to monitor and implement
nature-based solutions. Accurate
forecasts of climate-enhanced ooding,
for example, can help design ood
defenses like mangroves and wetlands
to supplement seawalls and levees.
Natural climate solutions can effectively
and efciently achieve adaptation
goals as well as support mitigation,
biodiversity, and more equitable
community development. Nature
protection and restoration, by far the
largest forms of carbon sequestration,
must be resilient to wildres, droughts,
heatwaves, and longer-term warming to
preserve their mitigation benets.
Finally, climate resilience solutions
can address the most impacted and
vulnerable populations and help
address equity, justice, and gender
considerations. Disadvantaged
populations in both developed and
developing countries have historically
faced higher vulnerability and suffered
the greatest impact from environmental
hazards, and increasingly from
the physical risks and impacts of
climate change. Women and girls
are particularly vulnerable to water
scarcity, agricultural stress, and natural
disasters, all of which are increasing
due to climate change.
25
Even if these
populations do not have the resources
to be direct buyers of these solutions,
they can benet from distribution
and use in their regions. Intelligence
technologies such as satellite imagery,
digital mapping, catastrophe risk
modeling and weather analytics can
provide critical information as systemic
solutions to safeguard and protect
disadvantaged populations in all areas
of the world, e.g. adaptation solutions
The Unavoidable Opportunity: Investing in the Growing Market for Climate Resilience Solutions
Page 9 of 25
March 2024