What policy ideas could help catalyze the adaptation economy? How can markets be coaxed into supporting climate-proofing innovations? And what does a new, Swiss-based start-up have to do with all this?
On today’s episode, Climate Proofers sits down with Simon Zadek, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Morphosis, a new company stocked with sustainable finance and business veterans looking to bring about an economy fit for a 1.5°C-plus world.
Simon traces his career from early work on labor rights and social auditing through to his leadership in green finance and nature-based investment, culminating with the insight that sparked Morphosis: that climate change is advancing faster than policy and markets can mitigate, demanding a wholesale rethink of how economies adapt.
He then unpacks the company’s debut report, “The Rise of the Adaptation Economy”, which sketches out a broad policy framework designed to help adaptation markets scale — much like how feed-in tariffs and offtake agreements propelled the renewable energy boom.
Simon argues that governments must learn to apply a “transversal lens” to policy areas like financial regulation, R&D strategy, and trade policy in order to make adaptation profitable and attractive to private capital. Without this, he warns, adaptation will remain stuck in pilot mode, dependent on dwindling public subsidies.
For those in the weeds of adaptation policy who want to understand how markets are being reimagined to support climate resilience, this is the pod for you.
🔗 Read “The Rise of the Adaptation Economy” report from Morphosis HERE
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Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
We talk about:
👉 Simon’s winding career from early work on labor rights and sustainable finance to founding Morphosis
👉 The start-up’s hybrid model, combining a private investment arm, a merchant banking function, and a policy and knowledge platform to build both the supply and demand sides of the adaptation economy
👉 “The Rise of the Adaptation Economy” report, and why Simon believes that standardized policy frameworks and market incentives are essential to scale adaptation solutions and attract private capital
👉 The specific policy innovations necessary for catalyzing the adaptation economy, including in financial regulation, R&D, and trade and investment policy
👉 Morphosis’ plans for an Adaptation Economy Index and creating an ecosystem of adaptation actors, tools, and new coalitions
Thanks for listening!
Louie Woodall
Editor
