Julie Gorte On Investor Engagement With Adaptation

Investment professionals can't bury their heads in the sand when it comes to climate risks. Extreme weather shocks are inflicting billions in losses to physical assets and businesses — losses that flow through to financial instruments like bonds, loans, and equities. By the same token, they shouldn't sleep on adaptation. Investors who bet on climate-proofed companies can lower the overall exposure of their portfolios to worsening storms, floods, and wildfires. They can also capture underpriced opportunities by investing in those businesses providing adaptation goods and services to global markets. Impax Asset Management is an investment company that gets this. In today's episode, Julie Gorte — Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing — talks about how she engages with the adaptation and resilience theme, and how her company has gone about engaging with portfolio companies on their own climate resilience. As a bonus, we also unpack the potential implications of Trump 2.0 on the climate investment space in the US, and touch on ways in which political discontent can harm efforts to build resilience. Sign up to climateproof.news for a twice-weekly dose of climate adaptation & resilience news and insights. Questions? Comments? Email Louie at [email protected]