Two Barriers, Two Solutions: Unlocking Last-Mile Climate Adaptation Finance

Two structural barriers block last-mile climate adaptation finance: local lenders in climate-exposed markets pay too much for capital, making adaptation loans unaffordable for small borrowers; and there is no simple, low-cost way to capture and prove the impact of those loans, so funders withhold capital. This session presents two novel prototype solutions: WEDGE, a financing structure that lowers borrowing costs by separating perceived risk from actual loss rates, and ARPY (Adaptation Resilience Person Year), a single metric that aggregates diverse climate adaptation outcomes. Attendees help shape both tools from their own experience and are invited to join the pilot program to turn them into reality.