As we all feel the impacts of climate change more and more each year, the need to invest in climate resilience becomes more and more clear. The World Bank estimates that by 2050, there’ll be more than 1 billion climate refugees.

It’s not about choosing between solutions to dramatically cut emissions and investments that help communities prepare for and bounce back from climate events – we need them both to limit human suffering as well as geopolitical risks of destabilization caused by climate change. 

Today, we’re joined by two leaders working to advance climate resilience. Nate Matthews is the CEO of the Global Resilience Partnership, an organization that supports research, policy and innovation to advance the world’s resilience ecosystem. And Joshua Amponsem is the founder of the Green Africa Youth Organization and a Director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund. 

In this conversation, we talk about the state of the climate resilience field, inspiring examples of innovation, the case for investing in resilience, how young people, startups and big companies are all contributing, how resilience will be present at the upcoming COP28 conference and much more. Lots to learn and think about in this one. Here we go. 

In today’s episode, we cover:

• [3:23] Nate's background & role
• [4:27] Joshua's background & role
• [6:20] Understanding climate resilience & its significance
• [8:17] Exploring the distinctions between resilience & adaptation
• [9:29] Joshua's perspective on the need for more resilience
• [11:58] Resilience efforts in the community & success stories
• [16:29] Identifying challenges & gaps in building resilience
• [20:15] Introduction to GRP & its role in addressing community needs
• [22:10] The potential impact of insufficient investment on mitigation efforts
• [23:30] Advocacy for investing in resilience
• [26:09] The investment case for supporting resilience efforts
• [30:50] Overview of the Resilient Agriculture Innovations Challenge
• [33:22] AI's role in resilience & innovations showcased in the challenge
• [34:51] Exciting & encouraging innovations in the current moment
• [38:41] Results and outcomes from the open innovation challenge
• [40:30] Resilience's presence at COP & goals for the upcoming year

Resources Mentioned

• Global Resilience Partnership
• Green Africa Youth Organization
• Youth Climate Justice Fund
• CGIAR
• Global Center on Adaptation

Connect with Nathanial Matthews & Joshua Amponsem

• Connect with Nathanial on LinkedIn
• Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

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