Jyotsna Puri On Rethinking Adaptation Finance

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.

In this episode of Climate Proofers, Jo explains how she led IFAD to adopt an adaptation-first agenda, shares what she learned from years as the inaugural head of the Independent Evaluation Unit at the GCF, and offers her candid thoughts on how adaptation finance can be mainstreamed across public and private financial institutions.

We also dig into Jo’s concept for “resilience credits” — a system that could create investable, measurable adaptation outcomes in the Global South. She’s also unsparing in her critique of current global financial rules, from capital adequacy ratios for banks to loan-loss provisions, that penalize investment in vulnerable communities. She argues that the global financial architecture must evolve to reward resilience and lays out a vision for rewiring important rulebooks like the International Financial Reporting Standards and Basel Standards to reflect adaptation and resilience impact.

It’s a must-listen episode for all those working at the intersection of climate finance, development, and institutional reform.

Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

We talk about:

👉 Why multilateral institutions and climate financiers have long prioritized mitigation over adaptation — and how she’s changed this thinking at IFAD and the GCF

👉 Her learnings from heading up GCF’s Independent Evaluation Unit, and how this office catalyzed institutional reform

👉 Her concept for “resilience credits” — a system to measure and monetize improvements in community resilience using counterfactual analysis

👉 Why international financial norms — like IFRS 9 and Basel III — discourage investment in vulnerable areas, and how to transform them into frameworks that reward expected adaptation and resilience benefits.

🎥 Watch Jo’s presentation: ‘Financing rural and climate solutions’ at Columbia University HERE

Thanks for listening!

Louie Woodall
Editor