Building Climate Resilient Utilities 2025

Images: Adobe Stock Disclaimer This document is published by the World Economic Forum as a contribution to a project, insight area or interaction. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are a result of a collaborative process facilitated and endorsed by the World Economic Forum but whose results do not necessarily represent the views of the World Economic Forum, nor the entirety of its Members, Partners or other stakeholders. © 2025 World Economic Forum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.Contents Foreword 3 Executive summary 4 1 Utilities on the frontline of climate change 5 1.1 New risk landscape: growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events 5 1.2 Systemic vulnerabilities: cascading impacts on critical utility infrastructure 7 2 Climate-resilient utilities: China’s multi-faceted approach 8 2.1 Resilience 1.0: a framework to strengthen the utilities sector 8 2.2 Policy and governance: orchestrating a hybrid government-business response 9 2.3 Technology: empowering resilience through innovation 12 2.4 Finance: funding the resilience transition 17 3 The next frontier: upgrading to Resilience 2.0 18 3.1 Evolving governance: institutionalizing climate resilience 18 3.2 Technological leapfrogging: AI-powered integration 19 3.3 Financial innovation: risk pricing as the architect of resilience 20 3.4 Science and education: essential foundation for resilience 21 Conclusion 23 Appendix: Definitions 25 Contributors 27 Endnotes 29 Building Climate-Resilient Utilities: Lessons from China and Future Pathways 2