Mobilising Business for Resilience
Embedding resilience in the private and financial sectors
Why this, why now?
Market-level change cannot happen in silos, making senior private sector stakeholders key to unlock further progress in adaptation and resilience. Only through a collaborative, cross-sector approach can we build the momentum and partnerships needed to make adaptation a core business priority. Bringing together private sector leaders not only as financiers but as active drivers of innovation in the adaptation space can help reframe adaptation and resilience from a narrative of cost and risk to one of opportunity and long-term value creation.
Building on from the successful legacy of the PREPARE Call to Action, this is a key moment to mobilise private sector leaders. This effort directly supports the COP Action Agenda by responding to the call for tangible non-party action, a strong business case for adaptation, and scalable, replicable solutions.
Our ambitious goal
GRP will engage and mobilise some of the biggest global companies to support their ambitions and actions on climate adaptation and resilience, including advancing resilience action in the Global South. Our approach includes:
- Facilitating dialogues, partnerships and alliances between stakeholders, including multi-sectoral and multi-national businesses, investors, asset managers, policy makers and academia in key geographies and/or value chains.
- Building the evidence and investment base and a robust case for change.
The platform aims to achieve the following overarching objective:
Convene and facilitate 30 world-leading companies to mobilise $3 billion towards embedding resilience into market systems by 2030.
The business case for action
In our current climate-changed world, events such as pandemics, extreme weather, financial crises, and food shocks are occurring more rapidly and with greater geographical spread than before. These events disproportionately impact communities in the Global South, which are already on the frontlines of such shocks.
The numbers:
- $300 billion annual investment required to build resilience and adaptation
- Less than one-third of the necessary investment is currently being made
- $28 billion in international public adaptation finance flows to developing countries in 2022
- 84% projected rise in ESG projects from 2021 to 2026
The opportunity: A climate-resilient economy is less risky and more profitable for all stakeholders. Private investors have significant incentives to support these efforts: such investments can reduce climate-related disruptions, enhance productivity, and lower operational costs, which translate into better credit ratings and increased profitability.
Four key activities
1. Resilience science-policy-practice brokering
We’re leading the Resilience Science Must Knows, which distils the most critical insights on resilience science into action-driven guidelines that support decision-makers with real-world implementation strategies driving meaningful system-wide change in adaptation and transformation at all levels.
This will be followed in 2026 by the Resilience Road to Action, providing clear, actionable steps to implement resilience strategies.
2. Strategic events, communications, and alliances
We engage the private sector through identification, communication, and outreach with key stakeholders. GRP designs and facilitates peer-to-peer learning and collaboration at targeted high-level events during climate weeks and COP as part of the Resilience Hub. We facilitate alliances between businesses, investors, asset managers, policymakers, and academia in key geographies and value chains and support opportunities for co-investment.
3. Building the investment base
We identify and support for-profit start-ups, social enterprises, and small and medium enterprises through innovation challenges. Through these challenges and calls, GRP surfaces bold, innovative ideas with real-world impact that may start small, but have the potential to scale in order to tackle the world’s most intractable problems. We provide demand-driven training and mentorship and connect them to funders through regular Investor Forums.
4. Building the evidence base
We document the knowledge evidence base, develop high-quality case studies based on company progress, and publish them in prestigious publications such as Harvard Business Publishing. We collaborate with Yale School of Management, IMD Business School, Saïd Business School at Oxford, UCT Graduate School of Business, and GNAM (Global Network for Advanced Management) to ensure evidence uptake.
Get involved
Private sector companies:
- Global recognition and demonstration of leadership
- Inclusion in case studies and best-practice reports
- Networking opportunities and visibility at high-profile public events including Climate Weeks and COP
- Contribution to advancement of global adaptation agenda and shaping the future of private sector resilience action
- Identify concrete business opportunities and potential returns from adaptation investment
- Receive tailored support to advance your strategy, attract funding, and communicate your impact
- Get evidence and storytelling tools to showcase leadership internally and externally
- Unlock co-investment and partnerships that would be harder to achieve alone
Business Schools: Join our growing network of institutions embedding resilience into business education.
Faculty: Develop teaching cases and research partnerships focused on resilience finance.
Students: Apply for fellowships and internships that connect you with real-world adaptation challenges.
Contact Us to Learn More