Climate Proofers

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.

*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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, a former Senior Resilience and Adaptation Advisor at USAID, and Jainey Bavishi, ex-Deputy Administrator at NOAA, delve into the stark changes in US climate adaptation post-Trump's presidency. They highlight the significant reduction in federal climate support and the implications for public goods like open-source data. Cook and Bavishi stress the importance of private sector engagement and innovative funding strategies to adapt effectively, while cautioning against the privatization of vital climate information, especially for underserved communities.