Funding Climate Resilience is a Coordination Problem, Not a Capital Problem
Climate resilience is often framed as a problem of insufficient funding. In reality, it is a problem of how funding is structured and deployed.
Climate resilience is often framed as a problem of insufficient funding. In reality, it is a problem of how funding is structured and deployed.
Incrementalism is often dismissed as not scalable enough to translate into population-level outcomes. But a series of incremental changes, conducted by various stakeholders in concert, can translate into new norms, higher standards, and more resilient cities.
As long as building codes lag behind climate realities, private insurance markets will continue to dictate local safety standards by default. Resiliency Codes offer a clear, actionable strategy to change this dynamic.
Treating wood as a public utility, rather than a waste product, could reduce fire risk, support insurer re-entry, and unlock economic value that currently goes up in smoke.
Wildfire-prone communities across the West are no longer waiting for federal dollars to mitigate wildfire risk. As FEMA funding stalls and detection technology gets cheaper, local districts are investing in wildfire-detection sensors, drones, and AI-monitored cameras.
With fire seasons now roughly two months longer than they were in the 1970s, 2026 could reset the ceiling on wildfire losses again.
Climate change and federal policies are making wildfires more frequent and intense. Migration patterns are increasing the exposure of assets to wildfire threats. And assets that are more vulnerable to wildfires translate into higher costs.
Part II of our Wildfires Briefing explores four categories of opportunity for the private sector: 1) Implementing modern building materials and codes; 2) Technologies for better fire management; 3) New insurance models; and 4) Private financing for forest management.
Incrementalism is often dismissed as not scalable enough to translate into population-level outcomes. But a series of incremental changes, conducted by various stakeholders in concert, can translate into new norms, higher standards, and more resilient cities.
The concept of adaptive capacity reveals that a household's ability to respond matters as much as its exposure.
As climate-driven hazards accelerate, a dangerous structural misalignment has emerged: What building codes deem legally permissible to construct is increasingly at odds with what catastrophic risk models deem financially viable to insure.
Maryland is pioneering a cross-state conservation finance model to fund pollution reduction outside its borders while still meeting environmental obligations.
With fire seasons now roughly two months longer than they were in the 1970s, 2026 could reset the ceiling on wildfire losses again.
Climate change and federal policies are making wildfires more frequent and intense. Migration patterns are increasing the exposure of assets to wildfire threats. And assets that are more vulnerable to wildfires translate into higher costs.
Part II of our Wildfires Briefing explores four categories of opportunity for the private sector: 1) Implementing modern building materials and codes; 2) Technologies for better fire management; 3) New insurance models; and 4) Private financing for forest management.
Several drivers are contributing to the rise in expensive severe convective storms: 1) population growth in high-risk areas; 2) non-resilient physical assets; and 3) rising building premiums.
Wildfire-prone communities across the West are no longer waiting for federal dollars to mitigate wildfire risk. As FEMA funding stalls and detection technology gets cheaper, local districts are investing in wildfire-detection sensors, drones, and AI-monitored cameras.
As federal disaster support shrinks, resilience districts offer local governments a promising new financing tool to fund climate adaptation on their own terms.
The absence of references to climate change in utilities' bond disclosures suggests we have not systematically assessed how climate hazards could disrupt operations or revenues and, just as concerning, that they aren’t incorporating climate risk into capital planning and investment decisions.
Property insurance markets across the U.S. are under strain as premiums rise and insurers pull back from high-risk regions. In response, a growing number of states are leaning on public and quasi-public reinsurance backstops.