Resilience & Transition Tech
Engineering and technology-driven insights for decarbonisation and climate resilience in infrastructure.
Presentation
The Technology Taxonomy for Climate Resilience and Transition (ClimaTech) research project at the EDHEC Climate Institute is dedicated to developing knowledge on technology-driven solutions that enable infrastructure assets to decarbonise and strengthen resilience against climate risks.
Infrastructure sits at the centre of the climate challenge—both as a major contributor to global emissions and as an asset class that is highly vulnerable to climate change. As the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, infrastructure companies face two major risks:
- Transition risks from evolving regulations, market shifts, and technological advancements.
- Physical risks from increasing climate hazards such as floods, storms, wildfires, and extreme heat.
Understanding and mitigating these risks is no longer optional—it is essential to preserve asset value, ensure operational resilience, and meet regulatory and market expectations.
The ClimaTech Database: The Largest Global Repository for Infrastructure Decarbonisation & Resilience
At the core of ClimaTech is the ClimaTech database—the world’s most comprehensive repository of decarbonisation and resilience measures for infrastructure. This database systematically evaluates strategies for 101 infrastructure subclasses, offering:
- Decarbonisation Strategies: Categorised by Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to provide targeted solutions.
- Resilience Measures: Focusing on adaptation to floods, storms, extreme heat, and wildfires.
- Evidence-Based Insights: Each measure is backed by scientific research and expert assessments on effectiveness and implementation feasibility.
In addition to the ClimaTech database, ClimaTech produces scientifically reviewed research papers for eight infrastructure superclasses, along with real-world case studies demonstrating the practical application of its insights.
Figure: Components of the ClimaTech database
Key applications of the ClimaTech database include:
- Sector-Specific Risk Analysis: Allows for sector-wide risk assessments, providing projections of potential climate-related outcomes based on risks and available mitigation strategies.
- Asset-Specific Risk Analysis: Can be integrated with emissions and climate models to deliver granular asset-level risk and mitigation assessments for decision-making.
- Portfolio Risk Management: Enables a consistent framework for assessing risk exposure and evaluating mitigation strategies across diverse infrastructure assets.
- Investment Prioritisation: Helps identify high-priority projects by assessing the cost-effectiveness of emissions mitigation and resilience strategies.
- Validation of Corporate Commitments: Can be used to benchmark corporate climate targets and transition plans against evidence-based insights to assess feasibility and realism.
Ensuring Scientific Rigour & Industry Validation
The ClimaTech database is a continuously evolving resource, designed to stay relevant and robust in addressing infrastructure-related climate risks. A dedicated Review Board, comprising experts from academia, the private sector, construction standards, sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds, consulting, and regulatory bodies, regularly assesses and refines the project’s outputs to ensure the highest scientific and industry standards.
The EDHEC Climate Institute gratefully acknowledges the support that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has provided to its green infrastructure research
Last publications
Executive BriefThe ClimaTech Project | Assessing Infrastructure Decarbonisation and Resilience Strategies
ClimaTech categorises infrastructure into 8 industrial superclasses and evaluates the effectiveness of transition and resilience plans for individual categories and 101 subclasses of infrastructure assets, in the following sectors: Conventional Power, Transport, Networked Utilities, Data, Environmental Services, Renewables, Social Infrastructures and Water Infrastructure.
ClimaTech also includes the ClimaTech database, which is a comprehensive tool that combines a structured classification of infrastructure assets with rigorous, evidence-based assessments. This database is to date the largest global repository of decarbonisation and resilience measures tailored for infrastructure. It includes a listing of the most effective strategies and technologies, accompanied by expert analysis and quantified
indicators.
ClimaTech is the world’s largest knowledge base for strategies and technologies, which supports companies in their efforts to mitigate risks, adapt to climate change, decarbonise, and build resilience.
Reducing Infrastructure Climate Risk Through Technology Measures: Networked Utilities (IC80)This paper identifies the key strategies or actions that networked utility infrastructure assets can take to decarbonise and build climate resilience. We give a high-level overview of influential approaches to achieve these aims that encompasses a wide range of infrastructure assets. Our “top-down” approach focuses on the general properties of assets in major infrastructure sectors and explores which strategies may be effective in multiple sectors.
We aim to find the most material strategies for both decarbonisation and physical resilience and gauge their effectivity.
Our literature review identifies the most material strategies, and their associated key technologies, across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and four climate-related physical risks - floods, extreme wind, extreme heat, and wildfires - and assess their effectiveness at reducing emissions or damage respectively. These four have proven to be the most common climate-related physical risks over the 20-year period from 2000-2019 (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020). We show how these strategies are relevant to the networked utilities infrastructure class, how they might be different between different types of networked utilities assets, and how they can best be employed by asset owners, filling a critical knowledge gap in the industry.
This paper forms part of a series of analytical studies by the EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI) into the measures that can be taken to mitigate the risks that climate change imposes in infrastructure investments. It is intended to help asset owners, prospective investors and risk managers assess at a high level which strategies might enable them to protect investments into infrastructure assets against climate-related losses in the future.
This paper forms part of a series exploring the broad strategies that infrastructure asset owners may use to reduce the transition and physical risks associated with climate change. Each paper focuses on a specific infrastructure subsector. We present an assessment of key strategies to decarbonise networked utility assets and increase their resilience to physical climate risks, along with a review of the associated literature.
Reducing Infrastructure Climate Risk Through Technology Measures: Renewable Power (IC70)This paper identifies the key strategies or actions that renewable energy infrastructure assets can take to decarbonise and build climate resilience. We give a high-level overview of influential approaches to achieve these aims that encompasses a wide range of infrastructure assets. Our “top-down” approach focuses on the general properties of assets in major infrastructure sectors and explores which strategies may be effective in multiple sectors.
We aim to find the most material strategies for both decarbonisation and physical resilience and gauge their effectivity.
Our literature review identifies the most material strategies, and their associated key technologies, across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and four climate-related physical risks - floods, extreme wind, extreme heat, and wildfires - and assess their effectiveness at reducing emissions or damage respectively. These four have proven to be the most common climate-related physical risks over the 20-year period from 2000-2019 (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020).
We show how these strategies are relevant to the renewable energy infrastructure class, how they might differ between different types of renewable energy assets, and how they can best be employed by asset owners, filling a critical knowledge gap in the industry.
We present an assessment of key strategies to decarbonise renewable energy assets and increase their resilience to physical climate risks, along with a review of the associated literature.
Reducing Infrastructure Climate Risk Through Technology Measures: Transport (IC60)This paper identifies the key strategies or actions that transport infrastructure assets can take to decarbonise and build climate resilience. We give a high-level overview of influential approaches to achieve these aims that encompasses a wide range of infrastructure assets. Our “top-down” approach focuses on the general properties of assets in major infrastructure sectors and explores which strategies may be effective in multiple sectors.
We aim to find the most material strategies for both decarbonisation and physical resilience and gauge their effectivity.
Our literature review identifies the most material strategies, and their associated key technologies, across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and four climate-related physical risks - floods, extreme wind, extreme heat, and wildfires - and assess their effectiveness at reducing emissions or damage respectively. These four have proven to be the most common climate-related physical risks over the 20-year period from 2000-2019 (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020).
We show how these strategies are relevant to the transport infrastructure class, how they might differ between different types of transport assets, and how they can best be employed by asset owners, filling a critical knowledge gap in the industry.
We present an assessment of key strategies to decarbonise transport infrastructure assets and increase their resilience to physical climate risks, along with a review of the associated literature.
Reducing Infrastructure Climate Risk Through Technology Measures: Data Infrastructure (IC50)This paper identifies the key strategies or actions that data infrastructure assets can take to decarbonise and build climate resilience. We give a high-level overview of influential approaches to achieve these aims that encompass a wide range of infrastructure assets. Our “top-down” approach focuses on the general properties of assets in major infrastructure sectors and explores which decarbonisation and climate resilience strategies may be effective in multiple sectors.
We aim to find the most material strategies for both decarbonisation and physical resilience and gauge their effectivity.
Our literature review identifies the most material strategies, and their associated key technologies, across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and four climate-related physical risks - floods, extreme wind, extreme heat, and wildfires - and assess their effectiveness at reducing emissions or damage respectively. These four have been chosen as they have proven to be the most common climate-related physical risks over the 20year period from 2000-2019 (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020).
We show how these strategies are relevant to the data infrastructure class, how they might differ between different types of data assets, and how they can best be employed by asset owners, filling a critical knowledge gap in the industry.
This paper presents a literature review and assessment of key strategies to decarbonise data infrastructure assets and to increase their resilience to physical climate risks.
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