Developing economies’ annual adaptation needs are five to ten times greater than current flows. Aligning finance with adaptation and climate-resilient development is critical to filling this gap. Financial institutions and corporates can have a sizeable impact on physical climate-related losses and damages – and are themselves exposed to physical climate-related risks.

However, while globally agreed upon metrics exist for climate mitigation, the same standardisation does not yet exist for climate adaptation. To mobilise finance at scale for adaptation, and disclose and track progress, it is vital that all stakeholders have access to the same basic globally consistent indicators.

Metrics for alignment to adaptation and resilience goals could form an important part of adaptation plans, and over time could yield significant benefits for society, financial institutions and investors – driving trillions into adaptation-aligned activities, and away from activities that undermine resilience and lead to maladaptation.

The next step in this work will be to generate indices needed by financial institutions and make these available openly via the Resilient Planet Data Hub.