S&P 500 companies mentioned "resilience" 600 times on earnings calls last quarter. The word is exploding, and it's losing meaning. New research shows only one kind of resilience moves stock prices.
We need to move beyond asking simply, How do we fund this project? and start asking, What financial risk does this community face, what outcomes could change that trajectory, and how should we invest accordingly?
When benefits tied to investing in resilience can be measured and demonstrated, major new sources of capital become available to help finance resilience.
How public, private, and philanthropic leaders can scale the next chapter of climate resilience. A national call to action prepared for Chicago Climate Week and Aspen Ideas: Climate.
Bespoke deals are too complex to scale. Broad “green” designations are too vague to measure. A middle route can fund adaptation at the pace climate risk demands.
Bespoke deals are too complex to scale. Broad “green” designations are too vague to measure. A middle route can fund adaptation at the pace climate risk demands.
Resilience projects become finance-ready by doing the early work of proving who benefits, quantifying the value of avoided losses, and building the partnerships that make private capital possible.
Insurance markets don't become uninsurable overnight. But the transition from insurable to uninsurable is the final stage of a sequence that can take years or decades to play out.
The economic losses from disasters that are not covered by insurance continue to grow, but resilience projects are generating measurable positive returns.
If today’s funding landscape resembles disconnected wells, then climate resilience requires something closer to a watershed—where resources are intentionally pooled, directed, and circulated across geographies, sectors, and time horizons.
