Adaptation and resilience are often already embedded across investment pipelines, not only in explicitly labelled adaptation projects but also in assets shaped by evolving policy, regulatory frameworks and updated technical standards. Adopting a broader lens that recognises these implicit resilience characteristics can expand the investable universe, improve measurement of explicit and implicit adaptation finance, and help mobilise capital at scale largely within existing project pipelines.

Ecuador’s Social and Resilient Housing Program is a clear example: new affordable housing units, not originally conceived as “resilient housing”, but built under strengthened national construction standards and updated building codes, made a material contribution to climate resilience for vulnerable communities. In this case, resilience was embedded through regulation rather than through taxonomy-style asset classification.