Description
Climate Change Business Journal Volume XVIII, Numbers 4-5-6; Q2 2025 Adaptation & Resilience: From Climate Risk to Disaster Response
CCBJ’s annual assessment of the climate change adaptation & resilience services industry forecasts little slowing in demand for climate risk analysis and resilience services, and firms upping their game in disaster response 1-9
Government & Financial Research: NOAA billion-dollar weather disaster database; United States Government Accountability Office analyzes FEMA obligations and contract mechanisms; FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities & Flood Mitigation Assistance programs; US Congressional Budget Office Aims at the Protection Gap; Swiss Re analyzes insurance & reinsurance 7-13
Clean Harbors Maintains Leading Position in the Growing But Unpredictable Emergency Response Market 14
Everbridge Sees Climate Risk Elevated to Corporate Financial C-Suite and Investment in IT and Critical Event Management 16
Risilience Grows Climate Risk Disclosure Business Despite Regulatory Backlash; Many Companies Will Still Adhere To EU And California Standards 18
TRC Business Groups & Management Systems Work Across Emergency Response Markets; IT Enhances Risk Mitigation 22
Fusion Risk Management Makes a Market for Climate Risk Intelligence With Business Resilience Software 26
WSP Resilience Planning Leader Bemoans FEMA Cutbacks; Sees Emergency Response Market Going More Local 28
CottonConnect Advocates Sustainable Supply Chains & Regenerative Ag 30
BuildStrong America ED Has a Comprehensive Vision for National Resilience 33
Freedom Solar Power Building on a Strong Platform of Diversified Services in Solar Solutions; 228 MW & Counting 40
PV Hardware Expands ‘Made in the USA’ Solar Tracking & Foundations 42
Paul Hawken Rethinks Climate Through the Lens of Carbon 44
SePRO and EutroPHIX Broad Capacity in Water Quality Aligns With Growing Harmful Algal Bloom Market 45
Consumer Energy Alliance Advocates Affordability & Reliability; Sees Growth in CCS and SMRs 47
UAE-Based GE3S Builds Sustainability Consulting & Engineering Business Across the Middle East and Into India 49
Brown and Caldwell Helps ‘Write The Book’ on Climate-Informed Design With Water Utility Climate Alliance 51
EBJ Lifetime Achievement Award: Ellen Berryman, Conservation Planner, ICF 54
Exhibits in this edition
US Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience Consulting 2010-28
US Mitigation vs. Adaptation & Resilience Growth 2004-2026
U.S. vs. Global Adaptation & Resilience Consulting Markets
The USA Climate Change Industry ($bil)
USA Climate Change Consulting Market ($mil) 2022-2028
Estimated USA Total Disaster Costs, 2000-2024 ($bil)
Costliest U.S. Natural Disasters in Recent History
U.S. Natural Disasters ‘Costs’ by Type: 2020-2024
Billion-Dollar Weather Events in the U.S. 1960-2024
FEMA Obligations Dashboard
US Congressional Budget Office: Costs & Coverage
Global Natural Catastrophe Insured and Uninsured Losses, Share of Insured Losses ($billions, 2024 prices)
CCBJ: Adaptation & Resilience and Emergency Response Industries Face Rising Demand as Climate Impacts Mount
San Diego, CA — September 2025 — Climate Change Business Journal (CCBJ) today released a new analysis, “Climate Change Challenges the Adaptation & Resilience and Emergency Response Industries Across the Globe.” The report finds the U.S. climate change industry grew 9% in 2024 to $532 billion, while the Adaptation & Resilience (A&R) segment expanded 18% to $4.8 billion, underscoring intensifying climate risks and the growing need for local preparedness and recovery capacity.
Key findings
- A&R outpaces the broader market. Double-digit growth continues, led by climate risk analysis, resilience planning, design engineering, construction management, IT systems, and specialty supply—offerings that remain relatively insulated from short-term federal policy swings.
- Disaster response is growing—but may struggle to keep pace. CCBJ introduces a first-pass quantification of the disaster response contracting market, noting it likely approaches the size of A&R services but is highly episodic. While no single contractor appears to exceed $1 billion in annual disaster response billings, several reach the hundreds of millions, and aggregate demand is rising with the frequency and cost of events.
- What’s counted (and not). Consistent with long-standing EBJ/CCBJ methodology, totals include specialty services—assessment, analysis, planning, permitting, design, procurement, construction management, project management, O&M—and exclude construction contracting revenues for both mitigation and A&R projects (e.g., buildings, seawalls).
- Policy sensitivity by segment (2025 outlook).
- Headwinds: Mitigation & compliance consulting; U.S.-government-sponsored research; international development.
- Mixed: Wind slows; solar and energy storage retain momentum from states and the private sector.
- Potential upside: Carbon capture; EVs and efficiency face negative signals but are less policy-dependent than other areas.
- Carbon markets: Continued delay absent federal momentum.
- Escalating costs of disasters. Billion-dollar events are climbing in frequency and total losses, and smaller, pervasive incidents likely add substantial, undercounted costs. Recent years have frequently surpassed $100 billion in U.S. disaster costs, with 2025 starting above that pace following major wildfires.
- Sizing emergency response: a pragmatic framework. A working allocation assumes ~16% of total disaster costs are emergency response, with ~two-thirds of that flowing to contractor revenues—a directional construct that CCBJ will refine using a bottom-up universe-of-providers approach.
Why it matters
Mitigation remains a global public good, but damages are borne locally—forcing cities, utilities, agencies, and companies to invest now in A&R and response capacity. CCBJ anticipates continued double-digit A&R growth, with response services potentially growing even faster (though more sporadically) as the “long tail” of climate impacts lengthens with rising temperatures.
About this edition
This release updates CCBJ’s tracking of A&R and climate change consulting (initiated prior to CCBJ’s 2008 debut), provides a U.S.-focused A&R market model, and offers a first structured estimate of disaster response contracting, alongside short-term 2025 forecasts for nine climate segments. Methodological notes clarify the exclusion of general construction from industry totals and summarize the cost-allocation framework used for emergency response.
Media Contact
Climate Change Business Journal (CCBJ) — Environmental Business International, Inc.
info@ebionline.org | ebionline.org
Source: Climate Change Business Journal — “Climate Change Challenges the Adaptation & Resilience and Emergency Response Industries Across the Globe.”
