Catalyst: The Rise of Adaptation Tech

Cutting emissions is essential to avoiding the worst of climate change, but we also have to deal with the impacts of climate change happening now. Fortunately, there’s a growing list of technologies that could help us adapt — and potentially turn a profit for investors, too. Will these emerging adaptation and resilience (A&R) technologies take off as an investment category?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Katie MacDonald, co-founder and managing partner at Tailwind. They talk about the areas of application – like wildfire prevention, air filtration, health monitoring, and more – that are attracting the attention of governments, corporations, and investors. But the space is young and still needs metrics and definitions, which is why Tailwind developed a taxonomy of A&R themes and sectors and plans to release an “innovation playbook” with market insights in the fall. 

Shayle and Katie cover topics like:

  • Growing demand signals from governments, such as California’s climate risk disclosure requirements
  • Defining the scope of A&R 
  • Attracting resilience-curious investors to the space
  • The co-benefits with mitigation
  • How to measure the success of A&R