Turning Adaptation Ambition into Investment at Scale
How FINI is forging the link between climate resilience finance and implementation.
Painters create cool roofs that lower indoor temperatures by applying solar-reflective paint to homes in Ahmedabad, India, which is among the top 10 fastest-growing cities in India and regularly experiences extreme heat.
Amit Dave/Reuters
Coauthored with Jorge Gastelumendi, senior director, Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center
The FINI (Fostering Investable National Planning and Implementation for Adaptation and Resilience) initiative and this resource page were developed in partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center as a joint effort to advance and accelerate investment in climate adaptation and resilience.
Strengthening climate resilience is not free. Unfortunately, individuals and governments alike need funding to install weather-resistant roofs, reinforce our cities’ water and sewer lines against flooding, or strengthen long-term economic resilience through investments like decentralized microgrids powered by renewable energy. But while extreme weather is getting more severe, the financing systems needed to protect people and economies are not keeping pace. A growing body of research has made it clear: Adaptation finance needs are now 12–14 times higher than current public flows, putting lives, livelihoods, and entire economies at risk. Private capital is moving but largely toward mitigation, not adaptation. And where adaptation is needed most, the conditions to attract investment are often the weakest.
Ideally, investment would align with countries’ National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and related strategies, which is where governments spell out where they intend to build resilience. But too often, these plans don’t translate into clear, investable opportunities. Project pipelines too often lack the elements that matter to investors, like risk, returns, and insurability, which are not clearly defined or communicated. Because data for climate resilience projects is limited, risks can feel hard to price, and institutions are often too under-resourced to bridge the gap between projects and investors. Because investors naturally avoid unquantified risk, and because risk drives return, ambiguity inflates a project's cost of capital—a vicious cycle of underinvestment and escalating damage.
However, something important is shifting.
A new wave of adaptation investment is beginning to take shape. Capital is, in fact, starting to flow into climate resilience in ways that would have been rare just a few years ago: from TPG Rise Climate’s investments in climate-resilient agriculture and technologies that help crops withstand shocks and Invesco’s dedicated adaptation funds to Lightsmith Group backing innovations like satellite monitoring and water systems and companies investing to protect supply chains and infrastructure, with that spending expected to reach more than $1 trillion a year. These are powerful signals that the capital and tools exist.
Private investment deals are being done, but they are often not aligned with national priorities, not connected to existing NAPs, and not reaching the most vulnerable communities. From the perspective of many finance ministries and central banks who control equally crucial public financing, these efforts still feel fragmented and too slow.
This is the gap we hope to close with FINI (Fostering Investable National Implementation) for Adaptation and Resilience, which is an initiative built around a simple idea: If we want private capital to flow into adaptation at scale, we have to fix the system that connects global and domestic investors to national and local priorities. By strengthening that connection, FINI aims to help turn today’s momentum into a coordinated, scaled system that delivers resilience where it matters most.
Imprecise National Adaptation Plans are stymieing investment
For both public and private financing to flow, countries need a clear, strategic plan that sets out where, when, and how adaptation can be financed—and where public support is essential. Many NAPs do not distinguish between projects that can generate cash flows or savings—and are therefore suitable for private investment, such as storm-hardened power plants or desalination facilities—and those that primarily deliver public goods and must rely on public or donor funding, such as seawalls protecting low-income farmland or early warning systems. As a result, investment pipelines remain fragmented and underdeveloped.
Even for projects that could potentially access capital markets, governments frequently do not provide the level of data, clarity, or policy support that investors require. This leaves many promising concepts stalled at the planning stage rather than progressing into bankable projects.
At the same time, private sector actors—from asset managers and banks to pension funds—are increasingly aware of both the urgency and the opportunity of adaptation. They have capital and expertise ready to deploy but face uncertainty due to unclear policy environments and insufficiently defined opportunities on the ground.
Water wells exposed by erosion, primarily due to rising sea levels, in Lomé, Togo, a country that is highly vulnerable to the climate crisis due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture and a heavily populated, erosion-prone coastline
FINI is the missing link between adaptation plans and funding
The world needs a way to determine which adaptation priorities are suitable for private investment, identify the policies and actions the public sector can take to expand the pipeline, clarify which needs must ultimately be funded publicly, and then effectively match those needs with the right sources of capital. FINI was designed by NRDC and the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center to make that shift possible.
At its core, FINI is a global coordination platform for adaptation finance that forges the link between climate ambition and implementation. Its purpose is to facilitate connections between countries’ plans and the capital to fund them. Launched at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025, FINI is part of the COP30 Action Agenda and is integrated into the NAP Implementation Alliance. It has been recognized by the COP presidency as a key mechanism for delivering real progress on adaptation. FIINI’s goal is to help build $1 trillion in adaptation investment pipelines by 2028, turning national climate strategies into real, investable opportunities that can attract both public and private finance at scale.
There are already many initiatives, institutions, and tools working on adaptation, but they often operate in silos. FINI focuses on linking and strengthening connections between existing stakeholders (e.g., linking private financial institutions, public development banks, national planning processes, multilateral initiatives, and on-the-ground implementation projects) to transform fragmented efforts into a coordinated system that helps deliver results at scale.
FINI connects more than 100 organizations across governments, private financial institutions, development banks, investors, insurers, philanthropies, and civil society. Over its initial three-year phase (2026–2028), FINI aims to:
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Catalyze knowledge to make more plans investable: Strengthen private financial institutions’ capabilities to translate NAPs into actionable investment frameworks.
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Catalyze deals by aligning capital and projects: Increase adaptation deal flow and pipeline development, supported by national and subnational investment coalitions and innovative financial mechanisms.
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Catalyze leadership by mobilizing the private sector: Build a unified global front of private financial actors prepared to advocate for and deploy large-scale capital toward adaptation and resilience.
Instead of focusing on commitments or pledges, FINI emphasizes delivery to ensure that projects move forward and resilience is built where it matters most.
FINI’s launch at COP30 accelerated the mobilization of a growing network of partners—all of whom recognize that the tools, capital, and expertise to finance adaptation already exist—and the priority now is to connect them and put them to work. FINI leverages the fact that at the country level, governments and financial actors are starting to engage more directly, moving beyond high-level discussions toward co-developing solutions that can unlock investment. And at the multilateral level, FINI partners continue to convene around key global finance moments, including alongside IMF–World Bank meetings, climate weeks, and regional investment forums; helping to build alignment between policymakers and investors and identify concrete opportunities and collaboration.
Moving forward, FINI will continue to co-create spaces where governments and investors can work together not just to exchange ideas but to structure deals. Through country-level investment coalitions, partners will align around shared priorities and co-develop pipelines that reflect both national needs and investor requirements. FINI will also test new ideas in practice through “deal sandboxes,” giving governments and investors space to work through real projects, learn what is successful, and refine approaches for scale. At the same time, FINI will develop practical tools and guidance to help financial institutions better understand how to invest in adaptation and recognize the value of resilience.
Over time, this work is expected to unlock more funding, spark new and creative financing solutions, and build a stronger pipeline of projects that are ready for investment. Just as important, it will create models that can be replicated and adapted in other countries, helping to scale far beyond initial efforts.
Senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center, Jorge Gastelumendi, and senior vice president for NRDC's International Program, Yamide Dagnet (far left), at FINI’s launch at COP30, November 14, 2025
What success looks like
Over its three-year arc to COP33 in 2028, FINI is designed to turn momentum into measurable, system-level change. By 2028, financial actors will be better positioned to move from strategy to implementation and translate NAPs into clear, investment-ready platforms for investors to engage.
At the same time, private capital will be positioned to flow more consistently into adaptation and resilience so that scarce donor resources can target public goods for communities with the greatest needs. This includes investing in climate-proof infrastructure, expanding insurance options, and supporting nature-based solutions (e.g., restoring wetlands or forests) that both protect people and support local economies and ecosystems.
If FINI is successful, it should make itself redundant in the future. Hopefully, FINI will be the catalyst where learned lessons and successful, replicable implementation lead to a self-sustaining marketplace of adaptation investment.
Related Resources
Adaptation Finance Has a Cash Flow Problem: Can We Fix It?
NRDC at London Climate Action Week: The Culmination of Global Sustainability Action
