Climate Proofers

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.

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.

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.

There are few things more devastating to a country's economy than a full-blown financial crisis. In the US, the memory of the near-implosion of the banking industry in 2008-2009 is seared into the minds of policymakers. It may be hard to recall just how calamitous that event was with fifteen years distance — but at its nadir the US unemployment rate surged to 10%, and economic output shrank 4.3%. No wonder regulators are preoccupied with avoiding a repeat. One potential vector for a future crisis is unaddressed climate risk. An ever-growing barrage of extreme weather events — coupled with intensifying slow-onset events like sea-level rise and temperature variability — could disrupt bank portfolios and trigger cascading losses throughout the financial system, reviving the specter of 2008. During the Biden administration, bank watchdogs took steps to guard lenders and savings associations from these hazards and encourage financial institutions to level up their climate risk management capabilities. One of these regulators is today's guest, Yue 'Nina' Chen, who served as Chief Climate Risk Officer at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency from 2022 until January of this year. In this episode, Nina shares how she built the OCC's climate risk function from the ground up, educating lenders and bank supervisors alike on the challenges that a warmer, more volatile climate poses to financial stability. We discuss her role developing and implementing the regulator's climate risk principles for large institutions — which offered first-of-its-kind guidance to Wall Street giants on climate-proofing their portfolios — and integrating climate considerations into the OCC's supervisory practices. She also shares her thoughts on the future of bank climate risk management now the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to climate resilience efforts across the federal government and explains why she thinks lenders need to improve their modeling and analysis of physical climate threats. 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 change is giving the coasts one hell of a beating. Rising oceans and worsening seaborne tempests are chipping away at our shorelines, degrading coastal ecosystems, and putting trillions of dollars of property, infrastructure, and water-based commerce at risk. The fast-changing vulnerability of coastal economies is a nightmare for insurers in particular, which are wrestling with how to model flood and erosion risks given the climate-induced tumult. Ocean Ledger is here to help. In this episode of Climate Proofers, Paige Roepers — CEO and Co-Founder of the geospatial analytics start-up — joins to explain how cutting-edge remote sensor tech and satellites, together with data-crunching models, are transforming our understanding of coastal risk, and unlocking new pathways for climate adaptation finance and insurance. We plunge into Paige's eclectic personal story, from her early passion for marine biology (including an early career stint as a research diver in Indonesia) to her years in investment banking at Barclays. This unusual blend of field science and finance sparked the insight that led her to found Ocean Ledger. We then get into the weeds of Ocean Ledger's applications for insurance and finance — and the potential for geospatial analytics to advance nature-based solutions and unleash financial innovation. 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.

Who better to star in our 50th episode than Laurie Schoeman? Laurie is a highly respected champion of climate resilience, housing policy, and sustainable investment in the US — with a career that's taken her from construction projects in San Francisco to the heart of the White House. For two years, she served under President Biden: first, as Senior Advisor for Climate Risk and Resilience, and then as a Senior Housing Policy Advisor. In these roles, she leveraged the power of the Oval Office to support nationwide resilience efforts and unlock adaptation finance. Now, she serves as Chief Investment and Impact Officer at Partners for the Common Good, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides low-cost, patient capital to low-income communities. She's also an important voice in the effort to make Los Angeles more resilient in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires. In her role on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery, set up by LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Laurie is advising on how to build back homes, businesses, and infrastructure to better withstand fires and other catastrophes. In today's episode, we cover a lot of ground — from the very different climate adaptation policies of Trump and Biden, to the challenges on the ground in LA, to the importance of CDFIs amid a wholesale rollback of federal funding. Laurie even shares her thoughts on the importance of the new American Pope in providing moral leadership at a time when so little seems to be in evidence. 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.

Scotland is a beautiful, wild, and dynamic country. It's also one of many facing a barrage of climate risks that, if left unchecked, threaten to harm its people and hobble its economy over time. Verture is working to prevent this. The Scottish charity — formerly known as Sniffer — leverages cross-sector, cross-community collaborations to build climate resilience up and down the country. They've got their work cut out for them. Scotland is dealing with higher winter rainfall, an increasing number of damaging wind storms, more heat extremes, worsening drought risks…. the list goes on. In this episode, Verture CEO Jo Kerr and Head of Climate Ready Leadership Jonny Casey talk us through this growing climate risk exposure and describe how the charity is preparing Scotland's population and economy to meet a more dangerous future. They unpack Verture's experience working with multiple levels of government and a mishmash of stakeholders to support enduring regional adaptation partnerships — like Climate Ready Clyde and Highland Adapts —that promote local ownership and community buy-in. Then, Jo explains the five core principles that drive Verture's collaborations, from place-based design to just resilience, while Jonny reflects on the role private finance and technology can play in supporting public sector efforts to build system-wide resilience. For those eager to learn how a leading non-profit is driving climate resilience at the local, regional, and national scale — 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.

What does it really take to model climate risk in a way that businesses and financial institutions can use? In this episode, Josh Hacker — Chief Science Officer at Jupiter Intelligence — joins to talk about how the climate risk modeling discipline has evolved in the eight-or-so years since the company's founding, and the lessons learnt along the way on the importance of transparency and accountability. He dives into the challenges reconciling clients' appetite for actionable data with the inherent uncertainty of climate risk model outputs, and discusses how and why competition in the climate risk analytics space is hotting up. It's a rare chance to hear from a climate scientist who also knows his way around the tech and finance spaces, too — making this a must-listen. 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.