Balancing Mitigation and Adaptation: Insights for the Financial Sector

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Dr. Nicola Ranger, Director of Climate and Environmental Analytics at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI), as we discuss the importance of climate adaptation.

When discussing humanity’s response to climate change, we often draw a dividing line between the competing priorities of mitigation and adaptation. Simply put, mitigation measures are actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation measures are based on reducing our vulnerability to the effects of climate change.

Looking back over the past three years of this podcast, whilst we have had many discussions about various mitigation efforts, we have had comparatively few conversations about adaptation. This imbalance between mitigation and adaptation is one that can be found throughout the financial sector. Despite its clear importance, and the often urgent adaptation efforts taking place outside of the financial domain, it continues to receive relatively little attention. This episode asks:

• Why is this the case?
• What would an appropriate balance between the mitigation and adaptation look like?
• And how can the financial sector drive progress on adaptation efforts?

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [e-mail] Links from today’s discussion:

- CGFI’s Publications - https://www.cgfi.ac.uk/category/publications/

- Global Resilience Index Initiative - https://www.cgfi.ac.uk/2022/11/grii-launch-blog/

- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) - https://tnfd.global/about/

Speaker’s Bio(s)

Dr. Nicola Ranger, Director, Climate and Environmental Analytics at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI)

Nicola is currently Director of Climate and Environmental Analytics at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI), a national centre established to accelerate the adoption and use of climate and environmental data and analytics by financial institutions internationally.

She works at the intersection of science, risk analytics, finance, economics and policy and has almost two decades of experience in climate change, development, sustainable finance and crisis risk financing.

Before joining CGFI in 2021, Nicola has held senior roles spanning public policy, development finance, academia and within industry. She has also authored more than 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, and contributed to major reports including the UK National Climate Change Risk Assessment, the IPCC Special Report on Managing Extreme Events, and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.