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“Most of these companies do not call what they do ‘climate change anything’ but if we can find them, we can invest in and scale up their solutions as the challenge of climate change grows.”ĪSAP recognizes the important role that small and medium-size enterprises (“SMEs”) can play in supporting climate adaptation. “Identifying companies that can help manage drought, flood, wildfire, supply chain disruption, disease, and other climate impacts is a critical first step to building resilience to climate,” added Koh.
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Despite the fact that 75% of all national climate plans under the Paris Agreement reference climate adaptation, adaptation received less than 6% of the total $579 billion of climate finance in 2017/2018, with perilously little from the private sector, according to the Climate Policy Initiative. The UN Environment Program estimates the cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries alone could rise to $140 to $300 billion per year by 2030, and between $280 and $500 billion per year by 2050. A recent study by the University of Cambridge shows an additional $100 billion of global costs annually linked to extreme weather events – such as floods, heatwaves and droughts – can be expected by 2040. “We need practical solutions to help us adapt to climate change now,” said Jay Koh, Managing Director of Lightsmith. The ASAP Taxonomy has been reviewed by a panel of global experts and is actively being applied to identify hundreds of private companies across the globe that offer climate adaptation solutions. It builds upon existing definitions and international standards around climate finance, such as the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and the UNFCCC Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) Taxonomy, among others, in order to foster harmonization and uptake. The ASAP Taxonomy was developed through the Adaptation SME Accelerator Project (“ASAP”), which is supported by the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) of the Global Environment Facility, Conservation International, and the Inter-American Development Bank and IDB Lab. This is the first peer-reviewed set of definitions and eligibility criteria specifically focused on climate adaptation solutions being offered by private sector companies. NEW YORK, The Lightsmith Group (“Lightsmith”) today released the ASAP Adaptation Solutions Taxonomy (“ASAP Taxonomy”).