How Leaders Can Hone The Climate Adaptation Investment Story

InnovationSustainabilityHow Leaders Can Hone The Climate Adaptation Investment StoryByJamil Wyne,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. A climate technology advisor, investor and educator.Follow AuthorJun 01, 2026, 12:25pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.LOGAN, KS - AUGUST 24: Darren Becker sifts through arid topsoil under a ruined crop on the family farm on August 24, 2012 in Logan, Kansas. Like many Kansas farmers who's profits have been wiped out by the record drought, the Beckers are working hard to hang on to their farm, which has been in their family for five generations. Most of Kansas is still in extreme or exceptional drought, despite recent lower temperatures and thunderstorms, according to the University of Nebraska's Drought Monitor. The record-breaking drought, which has affected more than half of the continental United States, is expected to drive up food prices by 2013 due to lower crop harvests and the adverse effect on the nation's cattle industry. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)Getty ImagesClimate adaptation is no longer a niche conversation. The urgency is real, and the institutional attention is harder to ignore than it’s ever been.A major new study released last month by the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices, in partnership with Temasek and Invesco, surveyed 165 Asian funders representing more than US$1 trillion in AUM - and found climate adaptation and resilience ranked as their single top impact theme. Asia is warming twice as fast as the global average, 3.7 billion of its people have been affected by climate events since 2000, and the region bears roughly 75% of the world’s adaptation financing gap. Globally, economic damages from natural disasters have grown roughly fivefold as a share of GDP since the 1970s. In 2025 alone: US$224 billion in losses, more than 17,000 fatalities. Yet cur...