Building Climate Resilient Utilities 2025

2 Resilience 1.0 is a comprehensive framework for strengthening the utilities sector’s ability to withstand and adapt to climate extremes, distilled from China’s practical experience in climate adaptation. It emphasizes building resilience not only in technical systems, but also across institutional and financial dimensions, ensuring that utilities can maintain critical services under increasingly volatile conditions. For some definitions of “resilience”, including one specific to infrastructure and utilities, please refer to the Appendix. The Resilience 1.0 model is structured around three mutually reinforcing pillars: –Governance and policy provide the strategic direction, with climate adaptation integrated into top-level policy design. This creates a powerful synergy between government mandates and corporate action, orchestrated through robust government-enterprise partnerships that ensure a coordinated, society-wide response. –Technology and innovation are leveraged as primary enablers. China is deploying advanced early-warning systems powered by AI and big data, hardening physical assets and developing intelligent operational systems to enhance situational awareness and enable rapid, data-driven decision-making during extreme events. Concurrently, it is pioneering ecosystem-integrated solutions, such as the “PV-sand control” model and smart hydropower infrastructure, to augment traditional engineering. –Innovative finance is being mobilized to fund this transition. This includes significant public sector investment and subsidies, complemented by market-based mechanisms such as green bonds and the nascent development of climate-risk insurance schemes to de-risk critical investments. In essence, Resilience 1.0 is about strategically orchestrating governance, technology and finance to proactively prepare utilities for climate extremes, rather than only reacting to crises after they occur. 2.1 Resilience 1.0: a framework to strengthen the utilities sectorClimate-resilient utilities: China’s multi- faceted approach China’s power reliability is rooted in coordination of government, business and communities, effective early warning and growing investments in resilience. Resilience 1.0 orchestrates governance, technology and finance to proactively prepare utilities for climate extremes, rather than reacting to crises after they occur. Building Climate-Resilient Utilities: Lessons from China and Future Pathways 8