How to successfully invest in climate adaptation?

The average global climate financing flows in 2017/2018 were USD 579 Bn[1], out of which those related to adaptation were only USD 30 Bn or a paltry 5%. As climate change impacts get more severe, it is expected that the need for adaptation related climate financing flows could be as much as USD 300 Bn by 2030[2]. In other words, adaptation financing needs could grow up to 10 times in 10 years. The picture at the micro-level is even more sobering when one considers the lopsided negative impacts of climate change on the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers (SHFs) and over 1.5 billion people residing in urban environments with vulnerable infrastructure. While government initiatives and public sector funding will need to continue to play a critical role, the private sector will need to step up to close the financing gap.  The proposed 60-minute panel will provide a practitioner’s perspective on how to structure adaptation investment vehicles, evaluate opportunities and maximize climate and development impact from adaptation investments. The panel discussion and Q&A sessions will be valuable to pick the best and brightest brains in climate adaptation investing!

The following will the sequence of presentations:

• Presentation by Winrock International (5 mins)
  1. Introduction to the panel
  2. State of play in climate adaptation finance
     1. i) Gaps
     2. ii) Barriers
• iii) Return on investment research
• Presentation by Mercy Corp (10 mins)
  1. Mercy Corps Ventures and how it approaches investments in climate adaptation
  2. Lessons or insights from adaptation investing

• Presentation by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) (10 mins)
  1. ARAF’s journey & structure
  2. Lessons/insights from investing in resilient agriculture

• Presentation by Rockefeller Foundation (10 mins)
  1. Resilience Infrastructure Fund – journey & structure
  2. Lessons or insights from adaptation investing

• Panel discussion guided by Winrock (10 mins). Topics to include:
  1. Linkages with other stakeholders such global corporations, development financial institutions (DFIs), governments etc.
  2. Challenges in scalability and replicability
  3. Impact of big data and other technological innovations

• Moderated Q&A session (15 mins)

[1] https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/global-landscape-of-climate-finance-2019/

[2] https://www.unepfi.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GCA-Adaptation-Finance.pdf