Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance partner Allan Marks participated in a conversation for Institutional Investing in Infrastructure on the impact of Hurricane Ida on energy infrastructure, the importance of clean energy projects, and investment strategies for achieving better resilience in the face of extreme weather events. The conversation was featured in the publication’s special November report, “An Agenda for Innovation in Infrastructure.”
Noting that there is a risk to being underinvested in infrastructure resilience and clean energy, Mr. Marks commented, “Extreme weather events are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity due to a changing climate… many governments are discovering that the cost of failing to invest in resilient infrastructure may be higher than the cost of making our energy systems stronger, nimbler, and more adaptable.” He also asks how investors will measure ESG and sustainability metrics and how those metrics correlate with financial performance.
Mr. Marks also discussed how climate projections will increasingly push government to promote investment in clean energy, and how investors and industry could be further incentivized by “new policies, programs and regulations that reward investments in sustainability and resilience, such as by value sharing the added energy storage from integrating EVs into urban distributions systems, by monetizing renewable attributes of clean power more creatively, and by incentivizing demand-side management and smarter grids to make energy usage more efficient.”
