World Bank 'Retires' Climate Target, EU Rejigs Corporate Sustainability Reporting Rules, Heat Tech in Barcelona, and More

Plenty of companies say they’re managing climate risk. Far fewer are doing anything about it — and the market can tell the difference. Tobias Schimanski built the first large-scale, firm-level measure of climate adaptation, using fine-tuned language models to read every 10-K filing from 13,500+ US public companies between 2003 and 2025.

The result is the clearest picture yet of how companies prepare for physical climate risk, and how investors interpret this preparation.

Join us as we walk through the findings and what they mean for anyone investing in, operating within, or building for the Adaptation Economy.

👥 Know someone who would benefit from Climate Proof? Refer them now so they can receive the newsletter every week:

The World Bank will “retire” its pledge to direct 45% of lending to climate-related projects, bowing to pressure from the Trump administration even as it extended the broader Climate Change Action Plan that was set to expire June 30.

US opposition to the financing target — introduced in 2023 by World Bank president Ajay Banga — has been consistent since Trump took office, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in April blasting what he said was the institution’s “myopic focus on climate and financing volumes”. The Bank will now fold climate action into a broader “smart development” framework emphasizing outcomes over percentage targets, and tying climate spending to jobs and growth rather than a binding lending share.

The decision to drop the 45% target comes in spite of a lobbying campaign by developed and developing country shareholders in the bank. Last October, 19 of the Bank’s 25 executive directors published a joint statement supporting its climate lending efforts. The US, Russia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia declined to sign, while Japan and India abstained. The US is the World Bank’s largest shareholder, with “paid-in capital” of US$3bn committed to its main lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and US$50.6bn of callable capital.

While the Climate Change Action Plan will continue, an Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) will evaluate the program — which was initially set up in 2016 to bolster finance for climate adaptation and mitigation and renewed most recently in 2021. 

Climate advocates opposed the World Bank’s decision. Melanie Robinson of the World Resources Institute called the outcome “unfortunate” and said the review of the Action Plan should strengthen rather than further dilute the framework. At DanChurchAid, a global climate charity, climate lead Mattias Söderberg said the Bank’s retreat would make it “much harder to deliver” the US$300bn per year by 2035 financing target set out at COP29 in 2024.

Climate finance provided by World Bank entities in 2025 reached US$50.8bn, for a cumulative volume of US$190.3bn for the period 2021-2025.

The Green Climate Fund is loosening its own financing constraints, agreeing at a board meeting in Tajikistan last week to hold thinner liquidity buffers and deploy capital more aggressively rather than reserving against future risk. Chief Financial Officer Darren Tan told board members that the practice of holding one dollar in reserve for every dollar deployed was limiting the fund’s effectiveness. (Climate Home News) 

The UK has “undermined” its international reputation by fudging a key overseas climate finance pledge, lawmakers at a hearing of parliament’s International Development Committee heard last Tuesday. The previous Conservative government pledged £11.6bn (US$15.5bn) for climate aid in 2019, but set no ringfence for the poorest countries and no sub-pledge for nature and forests. Ian Mitchell, an expert witness speaking before the committee, warned the UK’s overseas aid is approaching a 20-year low and that the chosen accounting methodology — which counts a portion of humanitarian spend as climate finance — is out of step with international peers and damaging to the UK’s credibility. (UK Parliament)

Colorado-based asset manager Green Alpha Advisors has launched the Strategic Resilience Portfolio, a new equity strategy betting that adaptation capex rather than mitigation strategy will drive investment returns. The 42-stock portfolio spans 13 layers — grid hardening, water security, earth observation, reinsurance — and excludes any fossil fuel exposure, rejecting rival funds’ “energy addition” approach, which encompasses hydrocarbon infrastructure. (Green Alpha Advisors)

Catalyst Fund — an early-stage investor in African climate start-ups — has achieved its second close, bringing total commitments to US$30mn for pan-African climate resilience ventures. IFC — an arm of the World Bank — together with Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation, and SpeedInvest are among the new backers. The fund, which targets 40 ventures from pre-seed to Series A, has already deployed capital across 28 start-ups in 10 markets spanning cold-chain logistics, agritech, and circular economy platforms. FASA, a fund-of-funds supporting African agritech companies, contributed a US$5mn junior equity stake designed to de-risk the fund and crowd in co-investors. A final close of around US$40mn is expected later this year. (Catalyst Fund)

InSoil has secured a €120mn (US$137mn) senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street Capital, one of Europe’s largest private credit commitments yet for sustainable agriculture lending. The Vilnius-based firm will use the funds to expand debt financing for small and medium-sized farms adopting climate-friendly agricultural practices, like no-till cultivation, cover cropping, and reduced synthetic fertilizer use. (InSoil)

Few insurers are leveraging their capabilities to support adaptation efforts, with just 35% of 40 major carriers “utilizing their role as risk experts to advise on and actively facilitate climate adaptation”, a report from UK non-profit ShareAction states. Three insurers — AXA, China Pacific, and SCOR — were found to specifically provide insurance for adaptation projects like ecosystem restoration. Insurers are also lagging on nature risks, with only three carriers disclosing that they include ecosystem degradation into catastrophe models. (ShareAction/WWF)

The European Commission adopted revised sustainability reporting standards, cutting mandatory disclosure data points by more than 60% and total data points by 70% as part of its Omnibus I simplification drive. The overhaul is expected to lower compliance costs by an average of 34% per company through 2031.

The revised European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS) — covering climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity, and human rights disclosures — streamline processes that companies had criticized as unwieldy since the rollout of the bloc’s flagship disclosure law, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The changes cleave to technical advice provided by EFRAG, an independent body of experts that advises the Commission on reporting standards.

A new voluntary standard gives smaller firms outside CSRD’s scope a proportionate reporting framework. Among the carve-outs, the updated rules cap how much data large companies can demand from value-chain suppliers, reducing reporting burdens for smaller companies downstream of Europe’s corporate giants. Both measures now face European Parliament and Council scrutiny, lasting two months and extendable by two more before taking effect.

European companies with €450mn (US$515mn) in revenue and 1,000 employees are required to disclose under CSRD. Other changes in reporting rules revealed earlier this year are likely to reduce the number of non-EU companies covered by the directive to some 1,200 from 10,000 before the simplification push, according to EFRAG. Companies with US parents are projected to account for the largest share of remaining in-scope firms.

France, Belgium and the Netherlands logged at least 3,700 excess deaths from the June 20-28 heatwave, with officials warning the toll will climb as data firms up. French deaths at home jumped 91% week-on-week, while Belgium called its mortality spike “unprecedented,” with over-85s accounting for more than 500 fatalities. The event, scientists say, was almost impossible without climate change. It also strained power grids and healthcare systems across the region. The scale points to gaps in heat-health early-warning systems and nursing-home cooling infrastructure, raising pressure on governments to accelerate adaptation spending ahead of what researchers expect to be an increasingly hot summer pattern. (Reuters)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved more than US$1.4bn in disaster funding on July 2, with US$70.7mn earmarked for 25 hazard mitigation projects designed to blunt future extreme weather-related losses. Rock Valley, Iowa will use US$22mn to acquire and demolish 123 flood-damaged homes, converting the land to permanent open space. Florida communities including Anna Maria and Winter Springs split US$3mn for home elevations, while Brown County, South Dakota and Bonner County, Idaho received US$1.5mn to bury overhead power lines. The bulk of the package, US$1.36bn, covers Public Assistance recovery work, including US$152.8mn for Tennessee debris removal tied to Tropical Storm Helene and US$39.7mn for Puerto Rico grid hardening after Hurricane Maria. (FEMA)

The UK has convened a first-of-its-kind taskforce of military, security, and academic experts to map out how climate and nature loss threaten national security. The taskforce, co-chaired by Climate Minister Katie White and Security Minister Dame Angela Eagle, is mandated to identify gaps in the UK’s readiness for climate and nature-related threats, review the government’s current resilience efforts, and investigate what happens “when assets, infrastructure or whole regions become too risky to insure or invest in”. Members of the taskforce are drawn from Chatham House, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and the Ministry of Defence, among other organizations. (UK Government)

The UK should adopt a national cooling action plan that prioritizes passive cooling and urban greening over a wholesale air-conditioning rollout, the Environmental Investigation Agency argues in a new report “UK Cooling Policy in a Warming World.” The EIA warns an AC-led response would raise energy demand, emissions, and exacerbate social inequality. Moreover, it flags that most air conditioners still run on HFCs — climate super-pollutants the UK is trying to phase down under its F-gas rules. It faults the Climate Change Committee’s latest risk assessment for omitting the refrigerant issue and calls for cooling to be treated as a public-health priority. (Environmental Investigation Agency)

Stalling on climate action could cost the Irish State up to €13bn (US$14.9bn) annually by 2050, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council warned, versus roughly €4bn (US$4.6bn) for implementing a credible action plan today. The independent watchdog’s new report, “The Hidden Costs of Inaction,” urges domestic investment in retrofits, public transport, renewables, and grid upgrades as a way to head off disruption from extreme weather events and volatile fossil fuel prices. Proactive investment in climate resilience and mitigation could also save Ireland from “open-ended costs of missing EU commitments”. (Irish Fiscal Advisory Council)

Half of New Zealanders now doubt they can afford home insurance as climate-driven disaster risk pushes premiums higher, according to a poll conducted by IAG, the country’s largest insurer. Four in five say home and contents insurance is becoming less affordable. More than 90% now expect weather-related disasters to grow more frequent and severe, while the share who see government as primarily responsible for managing climate risk has more than doubled since 2018, from 25% to 58%. (IAG)

Barcelona has issued roughly 1,400 heat-monitoring bracelets to outdoor municipal workers, including street cleaners, park staff, and waste crews.

The devices track body temperature and trigger sound and vibration alerts when workers face heatstroke risk, forcing an immediate stop to labor.

“The goal is to protect people’s health and to adapt to this changing climatology, which is increasingly aggressive,” said ⁠Pep Llimona, prevention coordinator of the city’s parks and gardens service.

Spain is reeling from a June heatwave that caused more than 1,000 excess deaths, with another heatwave forecast this weekend. The program signals a broader shift toward wearable risk-monitoring technology for outdoor labor forces.

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shenzhen University have built a solar-powered desalination prototype that runs on zero grid energy, with the potential to lower the cost of desalinated water to less than that of bottled water in just two years. The prototype entwines nanoparticles into a 3D photothermal material which is able to capture and retain 90.2% of broadband sunlight and reduce the amount of energy required to prompt evaporation by almost half. The initial unit, powered entirely by solar energy, produced 20 liters of drinking water of World Health Organization standard water every day — enough to sustain 10 people. (Advanced Materials)

Google Research has expanded its open heat resilience dataset to more than 50 cities across nine countries, with the aim of helping urban planners quantify the benefits of different cooling strategies. Developed with the World Resources Institute, the dataset now covers London, Athens, Barcelona, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and New York, and is accessible through a public Earth Engine application. The data is derived from Sentinel-2 satellite data fused with 30cm-resolution imagery from Airbus’ Pléiades Neo constellation – with a machine learning layer applied to provide fine-grained insights. Google’s modeling suggests targeted cool-roof planning using the data could shave up to 0.5°C off extreme urban heat. (Google Research)

Berlin-based angel investment syndicate resist.vc has taken a pre-seed stake in Molecular Attraction AB, a start-up commercializing pheromone-based mosquito control technology. The system targets vector-borne diseases including malaria, dengue, Zika, West Nile and yellow fever, offering an alternative to pesticide-heavy interventions at commercial scale. Backers cite West Nile virus's growing foothold in Berlin as evidence that disease vectors once confined to tropical regions are advancing into temperate markets. (resist.vc)

Urban heat risk assessment: a machine learning analysis of multidimensional morphology in 293 Chinese cities (npj Urban Sustainability)

Ultra flash cold events under global warming (Nature Communications)

Passive cooling for the built environment (Nature Reviews Clean Technology)

Simulation-based assessment of solar-integrated systems for climate-resilient residential buildings in semi-arid regions (Scientific Reports)

Strong intensification of extreme fire weather in Europe under 3 °C compared to 2 °C global warming (Earth System Dynamics)

Widening polarization in Americans’ perception of the health harms of climate change (2014–2024) (Yale Climate Communications)

Making a case for integrating a comprehensive care services infrastructure into climate adaptation planning and finance (Brookings)

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor