From risk to return: investing in climate change adaptation

This report lays out the multi-billion dollar threats and opportunities of climate adaptation, exploring avenues to increase investment into adaptation. The report provides recommendations to overcome barriers to action. 

Developed through a multistakeholder climate adaptation finance consultation process, it aims to identify real world investment barriers and recommend potential solutions, with the goal of enabling the finance sector to access adaptation investment opportunities. The document also sets out a pathway with specific recommendations that the Investor Group on Climate Change(IGCC) will be taking forward.

The study identified practical examples of investment models currently being applied or with the potential to be adopted to meet the challenges to adaptation investment. By looking at what works today, identified solutions can be scaled up with investment.

IGCC believes that the following areas present opportunities to promote greater investment into adaptation:

• IGCC would encourage all levels of government to collaborate on the development of a framework clearly setting out levels of government coordination and responsibility for adaptation in Australia.
• Australia needs an up to date national assessment of infrastructure at risk to the effects of climate change and an indicative quantification of the investment required into adaptation.
• All levels of government should collaborate in the establishment of an expert advisory group to work with the finance sector on promoting adaptation investment across Australia.
• IGCC will engage with global climate finance bodies on the development of an adaptation and resilience measurement framework.
• Investors should actively seek opportunities to blend adaptation outcomes into green or climate investment structures, where possible and appropriate.
• Investors should seek to engage further with public climate finance bodies to identify opportunities to apply mitigation investment structures to adaptation projects.