[SINGAPORE] The demand for climate adaptation solutions will accelerate, as the effects of climate change becomes more pronounced, said Wong De Rui, senior vice-president for sustainability at Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

For one thing, the economic damages brought about by climate disasters have increased by four times between the periods 1980-2000 and 2001-2024.

“That paradigm shift is already happening today under what some climate experts might consider fairly mild global warming conditions. So imagine what’s going to happen when we see global warming accelerate,” said Wong, who was speaking on a panel during the Milken Institute’s Asia Summit, which recently concluded.

He added that climate adaptation solutions, which include fire-resistant materials or flood-resilient materials, are not niche opportunity sets.

The enterprise value of companies producing these solutions will grow to US$9 trillion in the future from US$2 trillion currently.

“So it is enormous, and I think it’s something that even large institutional investors have to ascertain how to deploy capital potentially in this theme,” he said.

“It’s not just the size of the invest...