Few have insights into the global adaptation finance landscape like Jyotsna “Jo” Puri —economist, climate finance expert, and Director of Policy and Programs at the UN Environment Programme. With a career spanning the Green Climate Fund, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jo offers a rare insider’s look at how multilateral institutions are grappling with climate adaptation — and why so many are falling short.

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.

What makes a company an “adaptation play?” It’s a question Chris Goolgasian, Director of Climate Research and portfolio manager at the $1.2trn investment company Wellington Management, has devoted himself to in recent years. Chris oversees an investment strategy focused on stocks that should thrive as the world works to become more climate resilient — particularly those issued by companies that are addressing key climate risks: heat, drought, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, water scarcity, and sea level rise.

Dr. Carolyn Kousky is a true believer in the power of insurance for building climate resilience. So much so that she recently founded Insurance for Good, a new nonprofit dedicated to harnessing insurance for social and environmental resilience. In this episode, Carolyn — who also serves as Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund — talks about this new initiative and shares her insights into the evolving role of insurance in climate resilience, disaster recovery, and financial protection.

Cities are getting hammered by climate shocks. These concrete jungles are highly exposed to extreme weather events and slow-onset climatic changes — from wildfires (Los Angeles) to floods (Nashville, Lagos, Karachi) to heatwaves (Delhi, Houston, Madrid). Sonam Velani is on a mission to get cities ready for a hotter and wilder world. In this episode, she brings a sharp, systems-thinking lens to the climate challenge facing cities, drawing on her career on Wall Street, at the World Bank, and in New York’s City Hall to explain what’s needed to make urban environments survive and thrive in a climate-adjusted future.