22 real-world case studies reveal how global firms are finding practical ways to finance adaptation and resilience solutions across advanced and emerging economies
London, June 22, 2026 – The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) today released Investing in Resilience: Lessons from Private Finance for Unlocking Investment in Adaptation, a new report showcasing how global financial institutions are helping unlock investment in climate adaptation and resilience solutions across sectors and markets worldwide.
Drawing on 22 detailed case studies from around the world, the report highlights how financial institutions – from banks and insurers to asset managers and owners – are working to help clients accelerate investment in resilience. These transactions often require sophisticated risk analytics, deep client engagement, and innovative approaches to building investment cases, including the combination of multiple value streams and benefits. Despite these challenges, nearly half the solutions were delivered by private financial institutions alone, often using conventional instruments such as loans, bonds, equity, and insurance.
The report finds that while financial institutions are developing practical financing solutions, scaling them will require broader action across the economy, including supportive government policy, greater availability of public-good physical risk data, stronger demand signals from companies, and robust pipelines of investable projects. Governments in particular play a catalytic role in deploying concessional capital and building technical capacity to address barriers that private markets cannot overcome alone.
“Climate adaptation has become an immediate financing priority for businesses, communities, and economies around the world,” said Mary Schapiro, Vice Chair of GFANZ. “This report shows that private finance has the tools to help clients manage physical climate risks and invest in their resilience, but scaling these solutions will require deep client engagement, the right broader enabling conditions, and greater collaboration across the public and private sectors.”
“Adaptation is too often viewed purely as a cost. This report highlights that it can also be an investment—one that strengthens businesses, safeguards communities, and builds more resilient economies,” said Ravi Menon, Chair of the GFANZ Asia-Pacific Advisory Board. “Financial tools to manage risk and support investable opportunities already exist and are being used. The priority now is to scale what works, through effective public-private collaboration, clear policy direction, and targeted public investment.”
“At CIB, we recognized early that transition finance in Africa must address adaptation alongside decarbonization. This conviction led us to develop the Brain Trust Framework and Business Model, a proprietary CIB innovation that redefines the role of commercial banks in structuring, governing, and scaling adaptation finance,” said Hisham Ezz EL-Arab, CEO of Commercial International Bank, Egypt. “By demonstrating the business case for resilience across the food, water, and energy nexus, we have shown that adaptation finance is not only essential for climate resilience but also commercially viable. Through our collaboration with GFANZ and global partners, we look forward to supporting the mainstreaming and adoption of this model and mobilizing private capital for resilience across emerging markets.”
“Demand for resilience solutions is rising rapidly as physical climate risks intensify, and a large and growing universe of listed companies is already earning significant revenues from helping businesses and communities withstand floods, droughts, heat and storms,” said Ian Simm, Founder and Chief Executive, Impax Asset Management. “Building on more than 25 years’ experience of using revenue-based taxonomies, Impax is now applying this model to identify these companies and treat resilience as a material, fast-growing investment opportunity in mainstream portfolios today, not a theme for tomorrow.”
“Japan faces significant and growing climate risk, and the financial sector has a vital role to play in supporting communities and governments to build resilience,” said Kazuyuki Shigemoto, Managing Executive Officer, Chief General Manager, Investment Daiichi Life Insurance. “Our collaboration with the Aichi Prefecture shows that with close engagement and innovative structuring, long-term institutional capital can be deployed to finance flood defenses and earthquake preparedness on fully commercial terms, a model we believe can be replicated to mobilize private finance for resilience at scale.”
“Building resilience in the face of increasing physical risks is a critical part of adapting to a changing climate. Often this cannot be accomplished by a single actor but requires multiple actors to collaborate,” said Kevin Arnold, Executive Vice Chairman, UBS Investment Bank. “This is particularly the case where the value of future avoided losses that result from investments in resilience need to be recognized today in order to catalyze investment. We are pleased at UBS to be part of the FloodAction Coalition in the UK and to contribute to this new approach. We believe this can help catalyze broader efforts to invest in resilience, as reflected in the GFANZ report.”
“Climate adaptation is essential to protect economies and societies from growing physical risks,” said Linda Freiner, Chief Sustainability Officer at Zurich Insurance Group. “Investing in resilience makes clear economic sense by reducing losses and disruption over time. Insurers play a critical role by providing risk expertise, encouraging prevention and helping businesses and communities withstand and recover from shocks.”
The report and related case studies illustrate the following findings:
- Adaptation opportunities extend well beyond traditional infrastructure. Financial institutions are helping clients build resilience across the whole economy – from climate-smart agriculture and water infrastructure to energy grid hardening, resilient real estate, and financial protection mechanisms such as parametric insurance for households and sovereigns against a wide range of hazards, from droughts and floods to wildfires and hurricanes.
- All types of financial institutions are playing a part. Banks are originating and structuring transactions; insurers are transferring risk, providing analytics and deploying capital; and asset managers are providing long-term capital and enabling aggregation. In many cases, these actors are working together to combine capital provision with risk transfer and technical expertise.
- Physical risk assessment requires significant data and expertise. Financial institutions are combining public-good climate hazard data with proprietary analytics and direct corporate engagement to translate physical risks into the financial metrics that drive credit, underwriting, and investment decisions.
- Compelling investment cases are built by stacking multiple value streams. Adaptation finance often centers around pulling forward investment in resilience today to avoid larger losses down the line. Financial institutions are combining avoided losses, reduced insurance premiums, enhanced business continuity, and new revenue streams to build viable investment cases.
- Active client engagement drives pipeline development. Financial institutions are using risk analytics and technical expertise to help corporate clients identify vulnerabilities and convert them into bankable resilience projects.
Read the full report and case studies here.
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About GFANZ
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) is an independent, private-sector-led initiative focused on mobilizing capital and removing barriers to investment in the global transition.
GFANZ brings together financial sector firms that recognize the opportunity created by the transition – including banks, insurers, asset owners, asset managers, and service providers. It helps drive transition finance and unlock private capital at scale through support for capacity building and the development of innovative financing opportunities and solutions.
A Principals Group composed of executives from major firms approves the strategic direction of GFANZ, which is globally active through its Regional Networks in Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America & Caribbean, as well as Chapters in Brazil, the Caribbean, Japan, and Hong Kong.