CWNYC: Companies Flock to Biden's Adaptation Initiative

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“Adaptation is an investment opportunity. Companies providing adaptation, solutions and services are expected to increase their revenues by ninefold on average.” 

That’s what John Podesta, Senior Advisor to President Biden, told a roomful of climate-proofers at an adaptation-themed Climate Week NYC event yesterday.

Podesta’s speech was aimed at pumping up private sector support for the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a central plank of the White House’s international development agenda that seeks to protect half a billion people in the developing world from climate shocks by 2030.

As of yesterday 39 companies and partners had signed up to back PREPARE, each pledging resources, expertise, and data to support populations dealing with climate change impacts in the developing world. The most recent joiners include social network LinkedIn, standard-setting organization ASTM International, and Axa, the global insurance company.

Podesta insisted that private sector involvement is essential to the success of PREPARE: “We knew that only by working together could we move this work at the speed and at the scale that was required. And the companies here who are represented understand that, in addition to saving lives, acting on adaptation is the smart choice for your companies.”

Analysis by the Boston Consulting Group suggests that each dollar invested in adaptation can yield between US$2 and US$15 in benefits, and that adaptation and resilience solution providers earn a median valuation multiple of nine times revenue.

Podesta also listed off the impacts that PREPARE partners have had to date. For example, Blue Marble, an insurance company, has mobilized US$30mn in coverage to expand protection for 68,000 people since COP28. US food manufacturer McCormick & Company has invested in climate-smart agriculture training for over 30,000 farmers across its supply chain.

Aparna Shrivastava, Acting Chief Climate Officer for the Development Finance Corporation, echoed Podesta’s praise of PREPARE’s private sector partners: “No individual public balance sheet, or even all of them put together, is nearly enough to address the resource gaps that we face ahead of us, and so this private sector call to action is really so important as we move forward, to try to address this challenge head on, and try to address that challenge together,” she said.

A host of PREPARE partners highlighted their climate-proofing initiatives at the event, too. Heather Pace Clark of Axa says her company is focused on making supply chains more resilient through insurance solutions: “That includes coffee supply chains, where farmers are dealing with excess moisture, with excess drought, with excess heat. We’re excited to help them to understand what the risks are they need to prepare for and give them insurance solutions to actually transition to more sustainable agricultural practices, for example, giving them the health insurance that they might need if it's too hot to go to work one day.”

“We think that new insurance solutions, parametric and otherwise, including training, and really through climate impact assessments and transition assessments, can help to scale the financing needed to bring more people to the table,” she added.

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor