Today three companies – AstraZeneca, Cisco, and AECOM – announced new actions to bolster resilience to climate change for more than nine million people around the world. The announcements came as part of a roundtable discussion on the business case for climate adaptation hosted by Administrator Samantha Power, White House Senior Advisor to the President John Podesta, and the Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
In November 2022, former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Administrator Samantha Power launched the Call to Action to the Private Sector under the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) calling on corporations to take new, major actions to expand goods and services for climate adaptation, build operational and supply chain resilience, and to make related financial investments.
Since its launch, 34 companies and partners have made voluntary commitments to invest in climate resilience across 42 countries around the world. Taken together, these efforts will mobilize more than $3 billion in cash, insurance coverage, credit, and in kind services, in addition to the $2.3 billion that the United States provided in Fiscal Year 2022 in support of PREPARE.
AstraZeneca will invest in strengthening health systems to address climate-induced health threats in nine African countries through its Healthy Heart Africa program, with a focus on heart and kidney diseases exacerbated by extreme heat. Cisco will support coffee farmers in climate change impacted areas to use data and technology to optimize use of scarce resources such as water and land. AECOM will support cities in USAID partner countries to build more resilient infrastructure by using PlanEngage, a digital infrastructure planning and development tool.
More information about the corporate responses is here.
The President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience
