CIIP's Nicole Lim joined the panel "Adaptation finance: How to address the region's urgent climate resilience and adaptation funding needs" at Environmental Finance's Sustainable Debt & Transition Finance Asia conference, alongside Tan Chee Wee of AIIB, Henry Loh of Aberdeen, Foo Peng Er of CapitaLand Investment, and Jason Mortimer of Nomura Asset Management. 

One key takeaway is that Asia is positioned to lead on sustainable finance on various fronts, climate adaptation chief among them, given that the region carries this risk more acutely than most.

Some key points from the discussion:

🔎 Adaptation needs clearer conventions and a landscape view of where financing is actually flowing. The opportunity gap is less about capital availability and more about visibility into what counts as a resilience asset, and where.
🤝Capital alone is not enough. Closing the gap requires public, private, and philanthropic capital working across the spectrum, not any single actor moving alone.
💡Pricing climate risk is improving, but it is not yet precise. Progress continues on data and modelling, but application needs to be more targeted to specific sectors and value chains rather than generalised.

Great to be part of a panel that brought together such different perspectives on what it will take to move adaptation finance from ambition to execution. Thank you to the organisers and host Environmental Finance and SGX Group for convening this timely conversation.