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The Challenges of Climate Adaptation: Are We Falling Short?

Market Movers: The Opening Bell

September 8, 2025

Video Transcript

Climate Adaptation is meant to help societies handle climate risks from strategy to action to monitoring, but a new report from the nonprofit Probable Futures warns that adaptation plans may be falling short.

It found no clear consensus among global leaders on how to adapt, and poorly designed efforts could backfire, causing more harm than good.

Now examples include flood barriers that risks downstream or solutions that trade one climate threat for another.

Well joining me to break all of this down is Jeff Gitterman, CEO of Gitterman Asset Management.

Jeff, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Well, this study is quite surprising, isn't it, given the fact that not everyone can agree on the definition for climate adaptation.

So what were your key takeaways from this?

Well, we participated in this study as well, so it wasn't that surprising to us when it came out.

But the key takeaway is if you go back to the root, we really in this country especially still argue about whether climate change is real or not, so it's no surprise that we have a hard time really addressing what the definitional focus is for climate adaptation or resilience.

Climate adaptation resilience is being used kind of interchangeably these days, but What does it mean and what does it cover?

Like is it climate adaptation if you build up a supporting wall around the dam.

So this argument and confusion around the subject is allowing for not very clear focused agendas to crop up and everything's being handled.

Really on the local level and not much guidance from the national or international level even where people are having successes in sharing those successes.

Yeah, and Jeff, because you participated in this, you also have additional insight, but what are some best practices?

I mean, best practices really would be to get a clear definitional analysis of what is climate adaptation, sort of the Venn diagram of really showing everything that could fall under climate adaptation, and then what are successful investment opportunities, especially for the capital markets.

The only way.

You're going to get the private markets involved in climate adaptation is that they can actually see the investable themes within climate adaptation and resilience around water, water supply, fire resistance, water being accessible to more.

Areas of fire, which is a problem that LA had, which was a significant increase in the damages recorded, but also look at like the pictures from Maui of the one house that was left standing or the pictures of the southwest coast of Florida after the hurricane with one.

House left standing.

Those are specific adaptation and resilience investments that yield huge results.

Yeah, and I'm glad you brought those examples up because those are striking visuals that we still have in the back of our mind.

And here we are at the New York Stock Exchange.

We know a lot of publicly traded companies, as well as their leadership are looking for clear pathways.

So what are some strategies that they can actually embrace?

So during Climate Week I'll be talking to JPMorgan, GIC, and Jeffreys about the papers that they've all come out recently with that really show a clear focused agenda on climate adaptation strategies.

A lot of the studies quoted are saying.

For every $1 invested in adaptation, there's anywhere from a $6 to $44 recovery of those assets or profit on that dollar being invested.

So when we think about it, sustainable infrastructure is huge.

We have an aging infrastructure system in the United States that's being devastated by storms.

Think of Asheville, North Carolina.

They thought they had buried the water pipes and infrastructure deep enough to withstand.

Any future storms, one hurricane going up the coast and inland took out all the water supply systems in Asheville, North Carolina.

So we know the cost of that post-disaster is in the billions of dollars.

So investment in Preventing that is a huge recovery.

The problem is a lot of this is loss aversion, so we're spending money to avoid spending money on the losses.

That's hard to account for and difficult, where it makes a lot of sense is where it has added benefits, and that's what the study points to.

So is there an economic benefit and then could there be a social and environmental benefit that actually adds to it?

So can you layer on benefits to the investments that you're making and the more layers you can put on to And the benefits of that investment, the easier it's going to be for Wall Street to see that or for government support to come in more strongly.

Yeah, and Jeff, as you mentioned, Climate Week is right around the corner and we'll see gridlock here in New York City.

But when it comes to climate adaptation, given current frameworks as well as evaluation methods.

Do you think really needs to happen and what are you looking forward to as we approach climate week?

I mean, the most exciting thing for me is that starting in May you have this like slew of papers come out from all these major institutional companies, and it always starts there.

It doesn't start on the street.

Your end investor isn't going to be saying, hey, that you know my money in a climate adaptation strategy.

But when you start These big companies and then you start talking to them and saying what's going on behind the scenes.

Big institutions are coming to them and saying what is your climate adaptation strategy?

And more importantly, if you think about it, it's coming from the standpoint of is there a shock to a company?

Let's think back to Hurricane Sandy.

A lot of people didn't have remote access.

You had a lot of Companies taken offline.

The cost was in the billions of dollars.

What the big institutions and big money is now asking is what is your plan for a climate event so that you're not taken offline.

So you're getting a lot of pressure from different areas to address the subject.

I think we'll see a lot of answers during climate week.

OK, Jeff, we will have to leave it there.

Thank you so much.

“We have an aging infrastructure system in the United States that’s being devastated by storms.” – 03:42

Jeff Gitterman, CEO of Gitterman Asset Management, joins Remy Blaire at the New York Stock Exchange to discuss climate adaptation and the challenges it faces, particularly in light of a new report from the non-profit organization Probable Futures. The report reveals a troubling lack of consensus among global leaders on effective climate adaptation strategies, warning that poorly designed efforts could inadvertently worsen existing issues. For example, flood barriers may simply shift risks downstream, and some solutions might trade one climate threat for another.

Jeff emphasizes that the ongoing debate about the reality of climate change complicates the ability to define climate adaptation clearly. This confusion leads to fragmented efforts at the local level, with insufficient guidance from national or international bodies.

The conversation highlights the necessity of establishing a clear definition of climate adaptation and resilience, which could help identify successful investment opportunities in the capital markets. Jeff points out that for private markets to engage meaningfully in climate adaptation, they need to recognize investable themes, particularly in areas like water supply and fire resistance. He shares striking examples, such as the resilience of certain homes in Maui and Florida after devastating hurricanes, illustrating the potential benefits of targeted adaptation investments.

As Climate Week approaches, Remy and Jeff explore strategies that publicly traded companies can adopt to align with climate adaptation goals. Jeff highlights recent papers from major institutions like JP Morgan and GIC, which outline focused agendas on climate adaptation strategies. He notes that for every dollar invested in adaptation, there can be a return of $6 to $44, underscoring the economic viability of such investments.

The discussion also addresses the challenges of loss aversion in funding climate adaptation, where investments are often made to avoid future losses rather than to create new opportunities. Jeff stresses the importance of layering social and environmental benefits onto these investments to make them more appealing to Wall Street and government entities.

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