Making Climate Companies’ Business

This research paper examines how national governments can engage the private sector to support climate change adaptation. It argues that private sector participation depends on a strong business case for long-term resiliency and suggests that governments must identify specific business sectors and align public and private interests to promote the public good while discouraging activities that harm vulnerable populations.

• Private sector support for climate adaptation is dependent on the existence of a strong business case for committing resources to long-term resiliency. Governments can facilitate this by creating policy portfolios that provide incentives for adaptation strategies and tools to discourage activities that conflict with the public good.
• The private sector is not a homogenous group but is highly fragmented. Effective government engagement requires identifying specific partners, such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for local community needs, extractive industries dependent on local resources, or specialized solution providers to build regional expertise clusters.
• Positive alignment between public and private interests can lead to 'win-win' outcomes. Examples include BASF providing stress-tolerant plants for agriculture, Siemens and the Singapore government developing wastewater purification systems, and Sunlabob providing off-grid energy in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
• Some private sector actions can negatively impact the public good, even if well-intentioned. Risks include the use of foreign instead of local labor in infrastructure projects, the marginalization of local people through land acquisition (as seen with 900,000 hectares in Argentina), and the relocation of facilities which can cause job and revenue losses in communities.

APA

del Pino, S. P., Kerdeman, M., Metzger, E., & Prowitt, S. (2010). Making Climate Companies’ Business. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-8-response-4.pdf

Chicago

del Pino, Samantha Putt, Monika Kerdeman, Eliot Metzger, and Sally Prowitt. Making Climate Companies’ Business. World Resources Institute, 2010. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-8-response-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=del Pino |first1=Samantha Putt |last2=Kerdeman |first2=Monika |last3=Metzger |first3=Eliot |last4=Prowitt |first4=Sally |title=Making Climate Companies’ Business |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2010 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-8-response-4.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{delpino2010making, author = {del Pino, Samantha Putt and Kerdeman, Monika and Metzger, Eliot and Prowitt, Sally}, title = {{Making Climate Companies’ Business}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-8-response-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }