By Yusuf Khan
There’s a new buzzword in sustainability circles when it comes to investing in renewables and clean technologies: resilience.
“In the beginning you had ‘social’ and ‘responsible investing’ and then it became ‘ethical investing’ and then a whole host of other things have sort of emerged from that,” said Jason Britton, chief product officer at asset manager Sphere.
“‘Sustainability’ was a buzzword for a really long time then ‘regenerative’ and ‘triple bottom line,’” he said. “This is an industry’s effort to describe an incredibly complex thing in a series of one or two marketing words. ‘Resilience’ is the bingo buzzword of the day.”
For investors, “resilience” is the new catch-all term for investments aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change on their businesses. Often seen alongside terms like “adaptation finance” or “transition finance,” ESG professionals are using the word increasingly in marketing and communications related to their investments.
The word has been touted by the likes of French bank BNP Paribas, the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Commission and logistics giant DP World, all noting the importance of resilience in respect to climate.
London-headquartered investment bank Standard Chartered last week signed a deal for Chinese solar equipment capable of operating in extreme weather and storms. Prominent in the wording of the deal was “resilience.”
The illegal ESG cartel is rebranding ESG as “resilience.” Because that’s what fraud is — resilient. https://t.co/iva6HS15dx pic.twitter.com/SckRfcDyIq
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 28, 2025
