Join Louie Woodall, editor of Climate Proof, for round ups of the latest news on climate adaptation and resilience finance, tech, and policy and interviews with key "climate proofers" - experts working at the cutting edge of adaptation finance.
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Will Everill On Making Pests, Invasives & Bio Risk Tech The Next Adaptation Frontier (00:41:10)
Pests, invasive species, and biological (PIB) threats are on the rise. Why? You guessed it — climate change. Higher temperatures are exacerbating the spread of crop-munching pests, waterway-clogging marine species, and disease-laden insects. Indeed, PIB risks are some of the fastest-growing and most costly in our climate-altered world. A recent paper in Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation even says they are on a par with storms, floods, and wildfires — increasing by 702% from 1980–1999 to 2000–2019. And yet, PIB risk solutions are massively undercapitalized, and often overlooked in the adaptation investment universe. Will Everill is on a mission to change this. He's the founder of UpRoot Capital, a new climate adaptation VC and angel syndicate targeting early-stage companies that help customers detect, monitor, and control PIB risks amidst the changing climate. In this episode, he breaks down the emerging DX (diagnostic) and RX (control and remediation) technologies looking to tackle these threats and save agribusinesses of all stripes from biological catastrophe. He also maps the climate mechanisms driving PIB explosions. These include warmer winters — which allow pests to overwinter and reproduce faster — and shifting wildlife migration patterns. He illustrates the impacts with vivid examples: mountain pine beetles killing 100,000 square miles of North American forest, spotted lanternflies spreading across US cities and orchards, beds of zebra mussels blocking waterways, and ticks expanding into Europe and the UK to spread lyme disease. As one of the only investors explicitly focused on PIB as an adaptation category, Will also talks candidly about the challenges building a market that doesn't yet have a common language. This starts with educating investors on the size of the opportunity — and getting start-ups to realize "adaptation" is a category that can open wallets. For those curious to learn about one of the great, overlooked investment frontiers in adaptation, this is a must-listen episode. 🔗 Learn more about UpRoot Capital HERE 📰 Read Will's newsletter, The Adapt, HERE
Mike Williams On Scaling Real Estate Resilience (00:39:23)
What's the investment case for climate resilience? It's a question asked time and again here at Climate Proofers — and it's an important one. After all, if institutions can't be stirred to harden their climate defenses, the consequences will be costly: economically, financially, and societally. It's also a question that Mike Williams, President of ClimateFirst, has bet his career on answering. With his company, ClimateFirst, he's gone all-in on quantifying climate risks to buildings and producing resiliency plans to mitigate against them. In this episode, Mike shares how a decades-long engineering career provided a front-row seat to the emerging climate risk and resilience challenge, and explains how this inspired him to develop a scalable software solution to help real estate investors and owners take it on. We also unpack ClimateFirst's first-of-a-kind case study, which illustrates the wisdom of investing in resilience at the building level. Mike walks us through his team's analysis of a single multifamily building "cloned" across nine US locations — each exposed to different hazards from extreme heat to flooding to hurricane-force winds. The results show that location is everything, with projected 10-year losses ranging from $70,000 to nearly $5mn for this identical asset. He then shares the adaptive measures that can materially reduce these losses — without breaking the bank. For all those in or around the real estate investment space — and indeed, all those interested in quantifying climate risk and resilience — this is the episode for you. 🔗 Read Investing in Resilience: Making Physical Climate Risk a Financial Priority for Real Estate HERE 📖 Read more ClimateFirst resources HERE
Ana Mulio Alvarez on COP30's Adaptation Highs & Lows (00:40:59)
COP30 was billed as the adaptation COP. But did the summit live up to expectations? In this episode, E3G Senior Policy Advisor Ana Mulio Alvarez returns to the Climate Proofers podcast to deliver a frank post-mortem on the Belém conference. She gets into the gory details on how the Brazilian presidency tried to center adaptation in the talks, only to have its own messaging derailed somewhat by President Lula's energetic push for a fossil fuel roadmap. The result: a COP defined by competing priorities and scrambled narratives. Ana walks us through the summit's headline-making call to triple adaptation finance, and why it matters despite the ambiguous language used and lack of a clear baseline. She also comments on the supporting infrastructure of work programs, networking hubs, and financing roadmaps that may (or may not) continue to strengthen adaptation financing efforts heading into Bonn and COP31. Then, she offers a forensic account of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) indicator negotiations, which collapsed into a confusing — and controversial — mess at the conference's climax. She explains how the final set of 59 indicators now face a legitimacy problem that could haunt the adaptation agenda for years to come. Still, she sees a silver lining. With fresh scrutiny, new analysis, and a healthy dose of political pressure, the flawed indicators have the potential to be transformed into something more useful down the line. Ana also touches on a range of other adaptation issues spotlighted at the summit, from the overdue assessment of National Adaptation Plans to the disappointments experienced by the cash-starved Adaptation Fund. If you want the most honest, deeply informed readout of COP30's adaptation highs and lows — Ana's got you covered. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news
Sabrina Bachrach On The Ground At COP30 (00:36:58)
Amid the heat, humidity, and high political drama of COP30 in Belém, adaptation finance and policy expert Sabrina Bachrach returns to the Climate Proofers podcast for a frank, inside-the-venue debrief on the summit so far. She walks us through the fast-moving state of play on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the ongoing debate over a proposed set of indicators that could help countries speak the same language on climate resilience. While the indicators — and the negotiations around them — are technical and complex, their purpose is clear: to give the adaptation process its equivalent of the 1.5°C temperature rise target for mitigation. Sabrina talks us through the obstacles in the way of a final agreement, and explains why these last few days of crunch talks are likely to make or break the adaptation agenda. Sabrina also shares what she's been working on at COP30 — from helping launch nine "Resilience Must-Knows," a new qualitative framework for decision-makers, to unveiling FINI (Fostering Investable National Planning and Implementation) a major initiative aimed at making national adaptation plans genuinely investable. There's also insights on private sector engagement at this year's summit, particularly from insurers keen to protect their business models from runaway climate risks. If you're eager to get up to speed on all things adaptation at this year's COP, this is the episode for you. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news
Simon Zadek On Catalyzing The Adaptation Economy (01:01:16)
What policy ideas could help catalyze the adaptation economy? How can markets be coaxed into supporting climate-proofing innovations? And what does a new, Swiss-based start-up have to do with all this? On today's episode, Climate Proofers sits down with Simon Zadek, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Morphosis, a new company stocked with sustainable finance and business veterans looking to bring about an economy fit for a 1.5°C-plus world. Simon traces his career from early work on labor rights and social auditing through to his leadership in green finance and nature-based investment, culminating with the insight that sparked Morphosis: that climate change is advancing faster than policy and markets can mitigate, demanding a wholesale rethink of how economies adapt. He then unpacks the company's debut report, "The Rise of the Adaptation Economy", which sketches out a broad policy framework designed to help adaptation markets scale — much like how feed-in tariffs and offtake agreements propelled the renewable energy boom. Zadek argues that governments must learn to apply a "transversal lens" to policy areas like financial regulation, R&D strategy, and trade policy in order to make adaptation profitable and attractive to private capital. Without this, he warns, adaptation will remain stuck in pilot mode, dependent on dwindling public subsidies. For those in the weeds of adaptation policy who want to understand how markets are being reimagined to support climate resilience, this is the pod for you. 🔗 Read "The Rise of the Adaptation Economy" report from Morphosis HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news
Ben Abraham On The Battle For Adaptation Finance At COP30 (00:46:19)
The Super Bowl of climate politics is almost upon us. COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference, is about to kick off in Brazil — and expectations are running high for adaptation advocates. Brazilian leaders are fueling that momentum, with COP30 CEO Ana Toni calling the summit a "turning point" for adaptation and resilience. Once again, the question of finance hangs heavy over the talks. This time around, it's focused on whether rich countries will commit to a dedicated adaptation finance target, one that would channel much-needed resources to poor nations struggling under a barrage of compounding climate shocks. Which country groups are pushing for this target? What are the arguments against? And how has the adaptation finance landscape shifted over the last year between COPs? On today's episode, Ben Abraham, Senior Consultant at Instituto Talanoa, a leading Brazilian climate policy think tank, provides the answers. Ben explains why adaptation finance risks "falling off a cliff" without a new collective target, and unpacks the push by Least Developed Countries to triple current commitments to US$120bn a year by 2030. He outlines the political headwinds from donor nations, the tension between grant-based and loan-based finance, and the technical challenges of tracking whether countries are really delivering what they promise. The interview also ranges into the debate on the role of blended finance and multilateral development banks in driving adaptation, and explores whether private capital will ever become a meaningful contributor to the cause. Ben closes by sharing his and Instituto Talanoa's hopes for the summit, along with his vision of what a successful negotiated outcome on adaptation would look like. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Mishal Thadani On The Business of Grid Resilience (00:38:21)
There's no two ways about it: the US power grid is in poor shape. Wildfires, floods, and hurricanes continue to harry electric utilities and take down grid infrastructure, all while the country is rushing frantically to build out additional capacity to meet the energy demands of the AI craze. How can power providers expand and build resilience against extreme weather shocks at the same time — without blowing the bank? Getting access to better data and risk modeling would be a good start. Rhizome is a pioneer in the buzzy grid resilience tech market, and is already working with a clutch of big-name utilities to help them analyze and guard against climate-related risk. On this episode, the company's CEO and Co-Founder — Mishal Thadani — takes us through his journey from wind and solar energy to the resilience space, and offers his perspectives on one of the hottest niches in adaptation tech today. He also shares stories from the field: from Texas utilities swapping wooden poles for steel to Northeast operators raising substations above floodwaters. He also reveals what's driving utilities to finally treat resilience as a core business function, and how his company is helping them stretch billions in adaptation spending further. 🔗 Learn more about Rhizome HERE 🔗 Check out Rhizome's 2025 Wildfire Investment Snapshot HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Theresa Hoffmann On Reinventing Insulation For A Warming World (00:39:56)
Old-school insulation is no match for our climate-adjusted world. With temperatures rising, we need a new wave of materials and technologies to meet the moment. Enter NANOPLUME, a start-up working on super-insulating, super-thin, and super-light materials using bio-aerogels — free from petrochemicals and 100% biocompatible (meaning they don't harm those living around them). Theresa Hoffmann, CEO at NANOPLUME, joins the pod to share the magic of bio-aerogels, and explain how they can transform the way we insulate our homes and transport goods around the world. She also describes her personal journey to launching an adaptation start-up after stints at a top-flight consultancy and a deep-tech investment house, and offers insights on how to position adaptation hardware to cost-conscious consumers. 🔗Learn more about NANOPLUME's bio-aerogel tech HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Hunter Maats On Turning Climate Resilience Into Real Estate Alpha (00:21:11)
Could understanding the value of resilience be the route to riches in a climate-changed world? Hunter Maats is betting his career on it. In this final episode of our New York Climate Week interview series, the CEO of Resilience Investments — a real estate asset manager — digs into the climate and affordability factors causing people (and capital) to flee the Sunbelt for the Great Lakes, and what this means for US housing markets. He also lays out the case for forward-looking, climate-informed investing in real assets, and why a resilience-first approach should replace the uncomfortable duality of ESG analysis and traditional financial modeling If you want to understand the next big shift in real estate and investment markets, this is the episode for you. 🔗 Learn about Resilience Investments HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news. 11/25/2025: This podcast was edited after publication to clarify the origin of Resilience Investments
Krista Tukiainen On Leveraging AI for Adaptation Finance (00:19:25)
At New York Climate Week, two letters were heard again and again: AI. It's the world's hottest technology, with humongous potential to augment and accelerate a whole host of climate-positive actions. No wonder it was popular among the panelists and networkers crisscrossing Manhattan last month. One proponent of AI in the climate space is today's guest, Krista Tukiainen, the Co-Founder of ClimateAligned — an AI-powered start-up that's democratizing sustainability data and climate assessments at a fraction of the price of the big incumbents. She shares her thoughts on Climate Week and the changing language around climate investment, before drawing back the curtain on ClimateAligned — and explaining how tools like brief.green are lowering the cost of high-quality climate assessments and enabling the credible tracking of adaptation investments at scale. Then she and Louie discuss why smaller AI-first teams may be the future of climate tech — and what business models can win in this new age. 🔗Learn more about ClimateAligned HERE 🔗Check out Brief.Green HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
David Leathers On Making Workforce Health a Climate Priority (00:19:58)
What does climate change mean for America's workforce? In this fourth installment of our New York Climate Week interview series, David Leathers takes the mic to explain why employers need to treat climate risk as a health and productivity issue — not just an environmental one. As Program Director of the National Commission on Climate and Workforce Health, David is helping companies connect the dots between extreme heat, worker well-being, and business performance. But as he explains, employers still have a long way to go to understand climate impacts, and to scale the necessary solutions. 🔗Learn more about the National Commission on Climate and Workforce Health HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Mike Gulla On Why Insurance Needs a Makeover for a Changed Climate (00:39:52)
Welcome to the third edition of our Climate Week NYC interview series! Today, we have something for all the finance- and tech-heads among you. In this episode, Louie sits down with Michael (Mike) Gulla, CEO and Co-Founder of Adaptive Insurance, to discuss how his company is bringing power outage insurance payouts to small businesses — fast. Mike shares his insights from two decades in the insurance industry and explains why grid reliability is rapidly becoming a first-order financial risk for businesses. He also unpacks the explosion of interest in distributed energy, and why it reflects a fortress mentality among large companies eager to stay online no matter the weather. Along the way, he makes the case for why parametric insurance isn't just a financial product, but a critical safety net amidst ongoing failures to harden our infrastructure for a climate-adjusted world. If you're interested in how technology is shaping the future of climate risk insurance, this episode's for you. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Abby Ross & Joe Rozza On Why Resilience Is the New Bottom Line (00:31:26)
For the next installment of our New York Climate Week interview series we have a double-header: Abby Ross, Founder & CEO of The Resiliency Company, and Joe Rozza, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ryan Companies. Together, they share their reflections on Climate Week and the evolution of "resilience" as a theme with the corporate and investor crowd. Then, they unpack their collaboration on the new Commercial Real Estate Playbook — a first-of-its-kind, industry-driven blueprint for integrating resilience across the entire building value chain, from investors to insurers. Abby also offers a lowdown on The Resiliency Company's pathbreaking Resilient Delta Fund — designed to help Los Angeles build back better and stronger against wildfire risks. Whether you're in real estate, finance, or policy, there's something for everyone in this conversation. 🔗Learn about The Resiliency Company HERE 🔗 Learn about Ryan Companies HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Climate Week NYC Interviews: Ben DeAngelo (00:17:13)
In this episode, Louie sits down with Ben DeAngelo, Principal and Founder of Operation Future and former Director of the Office of Climate Adaptation and Sustainability at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Fresh from launching his new consultancy, Ben reflects on his decades-long federal career, as well as key milestones in the climate fight — from helping craft the landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding to coordinating the EPA's first adaptation strategy. He shares his fresh perspective from outside government, including why municipal bonds might be a sleeping giant for local adaptation finance, how non-federal actors are keeping the climate agenda alive despite political headwinds, and why private actors may have more latitude to innovate on climate then their peers in the public sector. Plus, he unpacks what's next for Operation Future — and how he plans to stay in the fight. 🔗Learn about Operation Future HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Andrew Lala On Democratizing Weather Intelligence (01:05:06)
*This episode of Climate Proofers is sponsored by Ignitia* Weather intelligence is one of most exciting frontiers in adaptation and resilience tech. But market solutions rub up against an uncomfortable paradox — the people who need weather intelligence the most are often those least able to access it. It's a tension that today's guest, Andrew Lala, is very familiar with. As an international development and climate tech veteran with on-the-ground experience in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, Andrew has seen first-hand the urgent need for farmers in developing countries to get a hold of hyper-local (and hyper-accurate) weather forecasts that empower them to adapt. He's also seen how large, supposedly sophisticated businesses — from commodity traders to agrifood majors — are operating today without a data-first approach to weather risk mitigation. These are all observations he's bringing to Ignitia, an AI-enabled weather intelligence company producing climate and weather intelligence tools for a dizzying array of clients, from African farmers to huge ports and logistical companies. In this interview, he offers a blunt analysis of the weather intelligence space, explains why he thinks the market system around climate and weather data is "broken and fragmented", and gives us the behind-the-scenes story of how Ignitia became a finalist for the UN-backed AI for EW4All Innovation Challenge. It's a must-listen for climate tech founders who want to learn from Ignitia's experiences, and for climate adaptation advocates curious about how AI can drive extreme weather resilience and preparedness within the world's most vulnerable communities. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Prashant Mupparapu On Enabling Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (00:51:49)
The intersection of climate and finance is getting crowded, making it tougher for adaptation start-up founders to stand out. Today's interviewee is betting there's room for a fresh offering targeting a particularly complex branch of the financial system: infrastructure. Prashant Mupparapu, the founder of InfraSure, is building a platform to help infrastructure investors, owners, and their insurers navigate the rising costs and uncertainty associated with climate risk. Drawing on a 20-year career in energy and infrastructure finance, with experience at Citadel, Credit Suisse, and Blue Owl, Prashant believes his techie approach to infrastructure finance and risk management can stand out in the busy climate intelligence market. In this conversation, he breaks down why financial institutions have traditionally downplayed resilience investments, and what innovative structures could compel increased engagement — like 'resilience credits'. He then explains the "risk gap" that InfraSure intends to fill, and why he believes tech should be an "enabler" rather than a "disruptor" in the climate-finance ecosystem. He also talks about widening the aperture of adaptation investment, and the importance of empowering infrastructure owners to understand the pros and cons of "renting" resilience via insurance or "owning" it via hardening investments. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Andy Love On Cooling The UK: Buildings, Shade, & Heat Resilience (00:40:16)
We spend most of our time in the built environment. If it's not designed with climate change in mind, then we all stand to lose. Our health, our wellbeing, our productivity — all can suffer if we're confined to spaces that can't handle higher temperatures. Today's guest is working on multiple fronts to make the built environment more climate resilient. Andy Love is the Co-Founder of the sustainability consultancy Love Design Studio and community interest company Shade the UK. Through these organizations, he's pushing for changes in how buildings are designed, with an eye on promoting livable, climate-adapted spaces that center the people living in them. He joins the pod to talk about the projects he's led on the dangers of heat in the UK — and the policies and design solutions that could help people cope better. He also unpacks the barriers to cooling Britain down and even dives into this summer's big question: should Brits embrace air conditioning? 🔗Links: Read 'Building Heat-Resilient Neighbourhoods' from Shade the UK HERE Read the 'Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes' HERE Read the Cooling Roadmap for the Greater London Authority and C40 Cities HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Jake Rascoff & Steven Rothstein On Exposing Climate Risk In The $4 Trillion Muni Bond Market (00:50:07)
Where will the climate financial crisis hit first? Is it in corporate earnings? Equity prices? Home values? Sustainability advocacy organization Ceres sees the storm breaking in the US$4trn municipal bond market, where cities and local governments raise cash to finance everything from new infrastructure to public transit systems. In this episode of Climate Proofers, Steven Rothstein and Jake Rascoff from Ceres raise the climate alarm on this oft-forgotten corner of the financial system and make the case for why better climate risk disclosure from cities, states, and local agencies is now an investor (and issuer) imperative. The conversation highlights the disconnect between known physical risks and what's actually being reported to investors, and makes the case for a standardized, forward-looking disclosure regime that can help communities attract capital for adaptation before disaster strikes. With federal dollars for disaster response in question, insurance markets in retreat, and climate disasters growing in frequency and severity, Rothstein and Rascoff argue that municipalities can no longer afford to underplay material climate risks in their bond offerings. If you're an investor, policymaker, or finance pro looking to better understand the climate perils facing the muni markets — this episode is for you. 🔗Links: Read 'Leading with Transparency: A Guide to Strengthening Climate Disclosure and Resilience in the Municipal Bond Market' HERE Read Ceres' report on insurance climate disclosure: 'The Measurement Gap: A Deep Dive into Climate Risk Reporting in the US Insurance Sector' HERE Sign up for Ceres' next webinar on insurance HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Anjana Agarwal On Adaptation Tech For Utilities (00:35:03)
It's hard work being a start-up founder. Harder still in the climate adaptation space. First off, you've got the challenge of explaining to would-be clients and investors what climate adaptation actually is. Then you have to figure out what form of language moves them from curious onlookers to engaged participants. To help deal with these obstacles, founders are on the hunt for "go-to-market Sherpas" — professionals who can guide them from the "promising idea" phase to the "commercial juggernaut" stage. Today's guest — Anjana Agarwal — is one such "Sherpa". With her company, The Ad Hoc Group, she helps climate tech start-ups with a resilience focus navigate the complexities of regulation, procurement, and scaling in the notoriously risk-averse utility sector. In our conversation, Anjana offers a frank diagnosis of the challenges facing adaptation tech start-ups, from mismatched language between founders and their utility buyers to political and economic barriers at the state and federal level. She also highlights some of the company's adaptation tech clients, including Pano AI and Resilient Structures, and how they're making inroads with major utilities. It's an episode for all you adaptation tech-heads out there, and anyone curious about how America's utilities are grappling with the blight of worsening climate extremes. 🔗Links: Sign up to the Power Resilience Forum 2026 HERE Learn more about The Ad Hoc Group HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Ben Andrews On Building An Adaptation Consultancy (00:40:20)
An awkward thing about the company Ben Andrews founded is that its name is a little out-of-date. Adapt40 is the bespoke adaptation consultancy he set up in 2021, which is today engaged in projects all over the world: from Dartmoor in the UK to the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. The '40' in 'Adapt40' comes from 2040: the year in which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted human-induced global warming would breach 1.5°C. That forecast was made back in 2018. Now, scientists believe this threshold could be crossed within the next five years. This is bad news for humanity, as it means we have even less time to prepare and protect ourselves from the extreme weather and slow-onset climate disasters that 1.5°C entails. But it has also injected fresh urgency into Adapt40's work. On today's episode, Ben talks about his career to date and unpacks the short, but intense, history of his consultancy. He then describes Adapt40's "participatory approach" to building resilience with local partners and explains why adaptation is more about collaboration than competition. He also gets into the company's secret sauce — its competence with data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) — and tells us what he really thinks about the use of AI in adaptation planning. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news. **Programming Note**: Climate Proofers is taking a break this August — but will be back with a bang in September.
Debbie Hillier On Adaptation Indicators, Finance, & The Bonn Climate Talks (00:47:36)
Eleven frantic days of negotiations at the Bonn climate talks this June yielded an important breakthrough: agreement on how to define 100 indicators for measuring global progress on adaptation. Reaching consensus was by no means easy. Adaptation is complex. After all, climate risks manifest in many, many ways and affect economic sectors, geographies, and populations differently. Political squabbles between countries also threatened to derail the process. Developing nations want indicators to track rich countries' financial contributions to adaptation — something the latter group would rather avoid. In this episode, Debbie Hillier of Mercy Corps — who was on the ground at Bonn — joins to talk us through the negotiations' many twists and turns, and to unpack the value of the indicator workstream to global adaptation progress. She also gets into the weeds of the long-running — and always contentious — debate on adaptation finance, and why we must hold fast to the Paris Agreement principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" if climate justice is to be realized. In addition, Debbie describes her role with the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance — a coalition of nonprofits working to improve preparedness against flooding, extreme heat, and other climate shocks — and the projects in Indonesia, Jordan, and Nepal she's been working on with the group. It's a wide-ranging conversation perfect for you policy wonks out there, and to all those curious about how adaptation planning and finance is being thought about at the highest levels. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news. **Programming Note**: Climate Proofers is taking a break this August — but will be back with a bang in September.
Alice Hill On Texas Floods, Trump's Anti-Resilience Budget Bill, And 'Climate Realism' (00:52:03)
For most climate-conscious folks, the world is a little more scary than it was back in 2015 when the Paris Agreement was signed. Ok, maybe a lot more scary. With a climate-denier in the White House, destructive wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, and the scaling back of emissions targets by rich countries, there's lots for climate policy wonks — not to mention the rest of us — to be nervous about. Perhaps a change in strategy is needed. A different way to press home the importance of climate mitigation and adaptation that suits the febrile times. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) thinks it has just the ticket: the Climate Realism Initiative. With adaptation as a central pillar, the initiative promotes investing in national resilience, preparing for climate shocks at home and abroad, and navigating the geopolitical realities of climate change. In this episode, Alice Hill, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at CFR and a veteran of the Obama White House, joins to discuss the new program — and some of the controversy it has generated in climate policy circles. Alice also shares her snap analysis of President Trump's newly signed "big, beautiful bill," which guts clean energy tax incentives and climate resilience projects, and offers her reflections on the horrific flash floods in Texas, which have claimed over 100 lives. She then digs into why the US needs a "Manhattan Project" for climate risk modeling and much, much more investment in adaptation innovation if it is to survive and thrive. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news. 📚Read Alice's essay 'The Adaptation Imperative' at Foreign Affairs 📚 Learn about the Climate Realism Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations
Jonathan Cook & Jainey Bavishi On The State of Adaptation Post-Biden (00:33:04)
It's been 161 days since President Trump's second inauguration. In that time, US climate adaptation policy has been utterly transformed — and not for the better. Today's episode — recorded at the recent Adapt Unbound 2025 conference in New York — unpacks how the Trumpian crusade against climate science, overseas aid, and the federal government writ large is undermining US — and global — climate resilience. Jonathan Cook, formerly Senior Resilience and Adaptation Advisor at USAID, and Jainey Bavishi, formerly Deputy Administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), explore the administration's gutting of the US's adaptation initiatives and hollowing out of critical climate data infrastructure. They assess what's been lost, what can still be salvaged, and where new opportunities for action lie. They also get into the real-world implications of losing public goods like open-source climate data, and what the retreat of federal leadership on climate adaptation means for the states, regions, and the private sector. It's a sobering listen, but an essential one for those wanting to understand where US climate adaptation goes from here. 👀 Adapt Unbound is coming to Europe! Join public and private sector leaders shaping the future of climate adaptation and resilience in Amsterdam this October 14 & 15. Learn more HERE Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
Katie Walsh On Financing the $86 Billion City Climate Gap (00:43:38)
Climate change is placing cities under siege. This week alone, urban sprawls across North America, Europe, and Asia are sweltering under extreme temperatures and bracing for heavy storms and flood-bringing rains. They need cold, hard cash to build up their defenses. But data from CDP — the OG environmental disclosure platform — shows a US$86bn funding shortfall for climate-resilient infrastructure. How can this gap be closed? And how can improved data help unlock capital for adaptation at the city level? Katie Walsh, CDP's Head of Climate Finance for Cities, States, and Regions — and North America Lead — joins the pod to offer some answers. She shares what she's learned over nearly ten years at the non-profit, reflecting on the evolution of climate disclosures at the corporate and city level and how they have helped build a picture of climate risk and opportunity. She also highlights the hard work underway to make climate data more useful for real-world decisions — from project planning to investment strategies. Katie then break down the CDP's recent strategic shake-up and its pivot toward smarter tech and AI to boost data quality and usability. If you're curious about the intersection of climate data, public finance, and real-world resilience, this is the episode for you. Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news. 📚 To learn more about CDP's 2024 Global Snapshot on Cities (developed in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors), you can read the report here. You can find the full list of projects seeking financing and funding from the 2024 disclosure to CDP-ICLEI Track available on the CDP Open Data page. Keep an eye out for an upcoming report to be released by the Network for Greening the Financial System G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group which utilizes CDP data to demonstrate how companies are putting their adaptation and resilience into their transition plans. It will be made available on Insights - CDP. CDP's reporting window is now open - go to the CDP Portal to begin disclosing now. Our Help Center provides further resources. Join CDP for the CDP Reporting Tips for Local, State, and Regional Governments on July 15 at 1 pm ET for an overview of the questionnaire, and tips on reporting in 2025. Register here.
Garrett Kephart On Scaling Climate Intelligence Through Spatial Finance (00:37:14)
What does it take to build a cutting-edge climate strategy firm? For Garrett Kephart, CEO and Co-Founder of Earth Finance, years of experience paddling through the Canadian wilderness and trekking the mountains of the Western US came in handy. As a seasoned outdoorsman, Kephart learned the importance of adapting to changing environments and making decisions under pressure — lessons he's transferred over to his work building a top climate adaptation and transition strategy company. In this episode, Kephart gives us the lowdown on Earth Finance, describing its beginnings in the heyday of the Biden administration and its subsequent evolution as corporate priorities have shifted. He talks about the recent acquisition of Climate Engine — a pioneer in spatial finance technology — and how these capabilities are helping clients better understand and respond to physical climate risks. The conversation also unpacks how AI is transforming the consulting model, enabling faster and deeper analysis of climate risks and opportunity. Kephart offers a nuanced view on the promise and pitfalls of AI, stressing the need for "ground truth" and local engagement to validate the findings of high-tech models and data feeds. Looking ahead, he highlights the current adaptation priorities of companies and the sectors that are already coming under pressure, while explaining how Earth Finance is positioning itself to be the one-stop shop for climate-proofing their operations. It's a conversation that the climate consulting crowd and geospatial community won't want to miss! Sign up to climateproof.news for more news and insights on climate adaptation finance, tech, and policy. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at louie@climateproof.news.
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