Look Forward | Episode 39: The Resilience Imperative

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Naki Mendoza: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Look Forward podcast powered by the S&P Global Institute, the platform for enterprise thought leadership across S&P Global. I'm Naki Mendoza, executive conference director for CERAWeek, and I'll be your host today. Markets are moving faster, risks are shifting, and decision-makers need foresight.

In this podcast, we bring you expert perspectives from across S&P Global on the macroeconomic, market, energy, and technology forces shaping what comes next, helping you navigate uncertainty and look forward with confidence. 

In today's episode, we're looking at the intersection of energy, climate, and the business models, policies, and industrial strategies around sustainability and resilience.

That's a term that will come up often in this discussion. We're recording this in the second week of September. Labor Day in the US is in the rear-view mirror, which means that [00:01:00] summer in the traditional and cultural sense has ended, but a new season is now ramping up, the season of major international gatherings on climate and global development.

New York Climate Week, the largest such convening, will run September twenty to twenty-seven, coinciding with the UN General Assembly meetings. COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference, will take place October nineteen to thirty in Armenia. And COP31, the UN Climate Change Conference, will take place in early November in Türkiye, just to name a few of those gatherings.

So what's on the agenda, particularly for New York Climate Week? How is the current landscape of geopolitical volatility, the proliferation of AI, and risks of extreme weather events seemingly disparate but all significant trends, how are they creating a new calculus for investors, energy operators, and stakeholders across the industries and markets that S&P Global covers?

What are the risks that business and industry must navigate across these vectors and others? [00:02:00] And what opportunities arise as these businesses and industries evolve, adapt, and pivot? To discuss all this, I'm joined today by Lindsey Hall, Global Head of Thought Leadership at S&P Global Horizons. She also co-leads the S&P Global Sustainability Research Lab and is herself no stranger to podcasting, as she is one of the hosts of the excellent S&P Global podcast, All Things Sustainable.

It's a terrific show that I recommend to all of our listeners. Lindsey, welcome as a guest to the Look Forward podcast. 

Lindsey Hall: Thanks, Naki. I'm excited to be here in the, the guest hot seat for a change. 

Naki Mendoza: Delighted to have you. So I just gave a quick rundown with the formal titles of your positions at S&P Global, but maybe in your own words, tell us about your different roles and how they all piece together.

Lindsey Hall: Well, thanks for the introduction, and I do wear a couple of different hats, as you've laid out, here at S&P Global. I think in all of those roles there's this common thread, though, which is that [00:03:00] we are looking outward to try and understand how is the world changing through client engagement, through conferences and events like Climate Week NYC, and then through podcast interviews with leaders from around the globe.

And then we're also looking inward to understand how S&P Global data can help understand those changes. And we do that for all the topics that fall under the broad sustainability umbrella. Uh, and in 2026, for us, that really includes a focus on geopolitics, it's climate change, it's the global energy mix, it's food and water systems, supply chains, biodiversity, nature loss.

I could go on and on, because really sustainability is a very broad umbrella, and it all comes down to how do you ensure that your business can survive and thrive in the long term. 

Naki Mendoza: The broad agenda, as you say, but it's also the name bearer of one of the flagship publications that you help lead, Sustainability Quarterly.

So maybe at a, at a broad level, before we dive into the specifics of the, the forthcoming edition, what is SQ, um, and, and [00:04:00] what does it cover? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. So this is something that, a- as you mentioned, I lead S&P Global's Sustainability Research Lab, and I have done so for the past several years. And this is where our sustainability leaders, our researchers, our analysts from across the business convene to share knowledge and information.

And a couple of years ago, in 2022, it became clear that we needed a centralized platform to publish this wealth of research. So five years ago, we're now on our five-year anniversary edition, uh, we, we launched S&P Global's flagship research journal surrounding pub- uh, sustainability. And it really... It's called, as you mentioned, the S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly, and it brings together the best research and insights from across the company on a range of sustainability topics.

We always publish a special edition in September, right before Climate Week NYC, and as you mentioned, that is just around the corner. 

Naki Mendoza: Perfect. So I wanna focus a few minutes [00:05:00] on a core concept. It's the anchor topic of the upcoming edition of Sustainability Quarterly, the topic of resilience. It is ... The title itself of the report, if I, if I could break the news, is The Resilience Imperative.

So at a high level, what, what do you mean by resilience, and how are you defining it? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah, it's a great question. It's an important question because resilience is one of those terms that it can mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask. And at S&P Global, we look at resilience through many different lenses, which I'm hoping we can get into today.

But at its core, resilience is this very simple concept, and it means creating a stable strategy that can withstand disruptions and allow an entity, an organization, a government to thrive in the long term 

Naki Mendoza: I- and looking forward to diving into the many different lenses. So with that framework, with that definition and the way that you're defining resilience, why has it become the organizing theme [00:06:00] for this upcoming edition of Sustainability Quarterly?

Why now? 

Lindsey Hall: I'm sure as all of your listeners will know, this has been such a tumultuous year, uh, when it comes to geopolitics, when it comes to how the landscape for AI and energy demand is changing. We started hearing this term resilience coming up in increasing number of conversations. And again, it's due to, I think, this fragmentation, this disruption that we're seeing, and I, I think resilience, this focus on resilience is really a response to that.

Humans, businesses, governments, we all crave stability, and resilience is a way of speaking to that. And you can't avoid change, you can't avoid uncertainty, but you can help at least prepare for it by understanding the world around you and then planning for the short, medium, and long term. So for us, that's how we're thinking about resilience and also I think what's behind this broader global focus on resilience.

And, you know, we see it coming up in energy [00:07:00] discussions. How do businesses and governments build resilience in energy systems so they can ensure energy security, affordability, and availability even amid the significant disruptions we've seen this year? Um, the, the war in Iran has made this question, I think, even more urgent.

Um, resilience is also a really important conversation when it comes to climate, so that's another lens that we look at it through. It's becoming increasingly clear that we're not going to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. And so in response, and we can talk about this a little bit more, climate strategies are increasingly focused on adaptation measures to build climate resilience alongside mitigation measures.

And then again, many other contexts that we can talk about resilience, financial and economic, agricultural resilience, water resilience, supply chain resilience. I- the list is very long 

Naki Mendoza: We'll, uh, have a question as we get into the conversation just about the [00:08:00] broadening and the applicability of that term to such a wide swath of industries.

But let me ask, there's been an evolution of terminology, of synonyms that have similar meanings and carry similar significance as resilience. The energy world and capital markets, they've, at one point, they've used the term, and still do largely, but the term ESG was the, the, the rallying, um, terminology.

Then sustainability, we saw a lot of buzziness around that. But now it seems to be around, as you're describing, resilience. Talk us, talk us, take us through and talk us about that evolution of terminology. 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. I love to talk about language. It's something we pay a lot of attention to on the All Things Sustainable podcast.

So in my view, resilience has more universal appeal, and I think that's part of why we're seeing a lot of people start using this term. It has more of, I guess, a passport to cross borders and industries and resonate with different groups of stakeholders. Uh, so I've talked to a lot of people over the [00:09:00] years who viewed the term ESG or environmental, social, and governance as sort of niche financial concept, and then more recently we've seen it become a politicized term, at least in the US.

So we saw this move away from the term ESG and toward this broader umbrella term, sustainability. And, um, as we've talked about, you know, sustainability is something that is really at its core just about how do you make your business, your organization survive and thrive in the long term, and no one wants to be unsustainable.

But I do still talk to executives who hear the word sustainability and they hear green or environmentally friendly or tree-hugging climate crusader, right? And, and they're still afraid of that backlash that we've seen in the US. They're operating in this incredibly fraught, pressured geopolitical landscape, and they hear sustainability.

And some of them, this is, this is a small group, but some of them still think it's a nice to have. It's a fringe idea rather than the [00:10:00] sort of core tenet of making your business sustainable and thrive in the long term. And people who operate in the sustainability world, of course, they know that's not the case.

But I think one lesson I've seen unfold over the past few years is that sustainability, it can't operate in its own little silo or its own little bubble only with other sustainability professionals. It has to be integrated throughout the business. It has to be woven into a commercial strategy tied to financial decision-making, and it has to be able to really speak to wide groups of stakeholders.

So again, if you're looking for a term that has a real universal passport that can speak to all sectors and geographies, I think resilience is, is where people are feeling more comfortable. Um, and just if I could give you a little perspective, I did a data poll of how companies are using the words ESG, sustainability, and resilience over time.

And looking at company transcripts for the S&P 500, we saw mentions of [00:11:00] ESG drop off a cliff while sustainability is on the downswing and resilience is on the rise. So it's nearing its peak at the start of COVID back in 20-- COVID back in 2020, which I think makes sense 'cause that was another time of huge disruption.

Naki Mendoza: We are, as I framed the intro to this conversation, we are speaking in before Climate Week New York City and COP Summit, so there's naturally and necessarily an environmental and climate angle to how we are talking about resilience. But as you have mentioned, resilience can mean many things, and it's a, and by nature of the, the, the proliferation of the terminology, it opens up a wide swath of industries to, to kind of craft their own parameters for how they're seeing resilience.

Does resilience have to have a climate and environmental consideration, or can a company call itself resilient but not focus on the climate emissions and environmental piece? 

Lindsey Hall: I mean, you can look at resilience, as we've talked about, through a lot of different [00:12:00] lenses, much like you can look at human health through different lenses.

You can go to the eye doctor or the dentist or the cardiologist, and if you only focus on one of those things, I guess you could say you're healthy, but you're gonna get the most holistic picture if you look at how all of these different things contribute to your overall health, and I think it's the same for, for business resilience 

Naki Mendoza: That's a good analogy.

And I ask that, and it's fascinating to dissect certain terms because we at S&P Global, we are, we're in the business of benchmarking. So it's very relevant to establish common language, common concepts, common parameters for how strategies and decisions get evaluated. So thank you for that dissection of the terminology and, and what we mean by resilience.

That said, let's dive into Sustainability Quarterly and the resilience imperative that the journal very brilliantly covers. There's several papers that cover a broad range of subjects of how [00:13:00] resilience is implemented and assessed. They range topically from AI governance and energy infrastructure to geographically, with a paper specifically on Türkiye, host country of COP31, of course.

At a high level, when you step back from the individual findings, what is the most important conclusion that connects all of the papers? Yeah. 

Lindsey Hall: I think at a very high level, sustainability in 2026 is a story of resilience. It's how are stakeholders balancing urgence, often changing, sometimes competing priorities in the face of disruption and uncertainty.

And all the papers in this research journal explore a different facet of resilience

Naki Mendoza: So one paper in specific, it looks at energy and climate as a function of geopolitics and as you're describing the global order that's being reshaped by wars, energy flows, AI, and climate change. [00:14:00] What do those updated scenarios tell us about how as a result of some of these shocks and tectonic shifts, how policymakers and companies are defining resilience?

Lindsey Hall: So this, I'm glad you bring this up because this scenarios report is foundational work, and my colleague Paul McConnell leads it each year in his role as S&P Global's, um, head of... Sorry, as S&P Global Energy's head of scenarios. And for this new 2026 report that kicks off the S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly, it's energy resilience that's the name of the game.

And essentially, we find that resilience is a defining lens for understanding the global energy future. People wanna understand how to create resilience amid all this volatility we've been talking about, and it's become the new mantra for policymakers, for companies, because of course, the future is unknown.

And so these scenarios offer sort of different alternative potential pathways to, to what the future might look like. And we've [00:15:00] got our base case scenario, which describes a world that conclusively pivots the global energy system away from fossil fuels while still meeting growing energy needs of developed and emerging economies.

We've got an adaptation scenario that balances a fossil fuel-powered economic growth future against the risks of heightened global warning, warming. And in this scenario, countries pivot towards strategies that are emphasizing adaptation to climate change over emissions mitigation. And that means that energy consumption and fossil fuel demand remain robust over the long term.

So, so two very different views there. We've also got a fracture scenario, and that looks at the possibility of accelerated technological progress in a weak policy and governance environment. And then there's the re- renaissance scenario, which is a lower emissions future that minimizes climate impacts, doesn't eliminate them entirely.

Um, and this scenario also maximizes domestic energy supply through accelerated build-out of clean energy technologies. [00:16:00] So we've got these, these four sort of different key pathways or scenarios that this report lays out. 

Naki Mendoza: Most of whichever pathway the world veers towards in which governments travel down, as they seek solutions for energy and environmental security, they n- they need to navigate very difficult trade-offs.

What, what are some of those trade-offs that the research has, has chronicled as the means to navigate? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah, I think the main one I would call out, every scenario requires some balancing of priorities, but the biggest one I would call out is how do you meet the world's growing energy den- demands while also addressing climate change?

Both of these things are realities that we have to grapple with. Uh, both of these topics are in the headlines every day. And, uh, so how do you, how do you balance that? And one interesting perspective on this topic I'll call out is we recently had S&P Global Energy President Dave Ernsberger on the All Things Sustainable [00:17:00] podcast as a guest, and I posed that question to him.

How do you think about this balancing act? And the way he phrased it, he said that rather than talking about the need to phase out fossil fuels, we should be talking about maximizing investment in clean energy. So I thought that was sort of an interesting reframe, uh, or a new way of looking at this foundational problem or this foundational challenge that, that the energy world is needing to address 

Naki Mendoza: Proactive and more additive framing of the issue rather than a restrictive and eliminating viewpoint.

Lindsey Hall: Yeah, and I think it speaks to the business and investment community in a way that maybe some of the language that we hear from the climate science community might not, and it's very valid. But again, it's how do you take this urgent climate science message and translate it to the business and investment community that you really need to buy in in order to, to [00:18:00] finance, uh, changing models.

Naki Mendoza: So if resilience is in part a, of, of the purview of government and becomes a national goal, uh, the purview of policy, at a national level, at a high level, what are some examples or how do you... how are you seeing policymakers being able to distill otherwise a, a lofty concept, a lofty goal such as resilience into the more mainstream, into more tangible, everyday concrete issues that voters are concerned about around the kitchen table and in their everyday comings and goings? 

Lindsey Hall: Well, certainly I think you bring up a good point, which is that at the policy level, governments need to be able to really make a clear case to their constituents, and often affordability is the clearest case that they can, they can make. Um, so if you can show your constituents how you can build resilience through more affordable sources of energy that are also going to have the knock-on [00:19:00] effect of being more environmentally friendly, um, and also are going to contribute to national security, then I think that's, that's potentially a winning strategy and something that we're hearing discussed more and more, especially in the context of this ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

You know, one thing we've been looking at a lot is of the energy trilemma, and as the war has unfolded, we've had this almost unexpected effect of seeing how it's reshaped the balancing act between energy security, energy affordability, and energy sustainability. And I'd say in 2026, it's actually become increasingly clear that these three parts of the energy trilemma can work in tandem.

Um, and what I mean by that is, you know, energy security of course refers to how do you have secure, reliable access to energy. Uh, energy affordability, it's pretty straightforward. How can you make sure that your constituents, your, your stakeholders can afford their energy? [00:20:00] Um, if energy's too expensive, it's not really secure And then energy sustainability, that often refers to how green or environmentally friendly an energy source is.

Um, and often in the past I've heard energy sustainability talked about as being in competition with other parts of the trilemma. But again, this war in the Middle East is reshaping that calculus dramatically, and we're seeing energy security take center stage, and people realize that with oil and gas availability and affordability in limbo, countries are turning to other forms of energy, including renewables.

Also coal in some instances. But we've seen a big, um, emphasis on renewables like solar and wind with the war in the Middle East 

Naki Mendoza: Related to all of this and, uh, the subject of another one of the papers in the journal is a topic that you'd mentioned before, but let's dive into it a little bit, is the topic of adaptation.

And you made the point earlier that there's a growing recognition that the [00:21:00] world, society, governments, industries are not on track to hit the Paris target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. What does the research show about how companies are coming around to that realization? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. So I think as we're seeing this rising realization that some of the impacts of climate change are going to be inevitable, we're hearing an increased focus anecdotally on adaptation measures.

And to just, to, to define our terms, adaptation in the climate context is the practical measures that companies or countries can take to prepare for and adjust to current and future climate change impacts. Um, and so in 2025 at Climate NYC, adaptation was sort of the buzzword. That was what everyone was talking about.

Everyone was talking about what adaptation measures can you take, um, to prepare for climate change. And so in this research what we wanted to do is understand, beyond the anecdotal, how well [00:22:00] prepared are companies really when it comes to adaptation planning. And one of the things, one of the really cool datasets that we have at S&P Global is called the, um, Corporate Sustainability Assessment.

Every year that asks thousands of companies around the world about a whole bunch of different sustainability topics, and one of them is, do you have an adaptation plan? And if so, how complex is it? How in-depth is it? And so for this research, we found that 46% of the more than 9,000 companies that we assessed now report adaptation plans, and that's up pretty significantly from 2022 when it was just 19% of companies.

So that's sort of one interesting finding, I would say, that supports this idea that adaptation is, is becoming more front and center. 

Naki Mendoza: Who's moving fastest and firmest on adaptation plans? Which industries or geographies? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. So we see that companies in Asia Pacific and Europe are leading, [00:23:00] while those in Nor- North America are continuing to lag, although they've also seen some growth.

And then we find that industries that have big fixed assets, can't be moved out of harm's way, are ahead of the average when it comes to adaptation planning, and that's probably not surprising, right? If you have assets that are subject to climate change and the hazards that that brings, you're gonna take steps to prepare.

And so utilities, real estate companies, companies in the materials and industrial industries are really leading the pack. 

Naki Mendoza: Geographies and industries that are... There's room for growth, room for improvement on adaptation strategies. What are you finding are the biggest bottlenecks to adaptation planning?

Lindsey Hall: Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably no surprise that it's resources, whether financial or organizational resources, um, expertise, knowledge. If you're a smaller company that doesn't have the resources to commit to an adaptation plan or [00:24:00] understanding, um, at a very granular level what climate change might do to your assets, to your supply chains, to your workforce, then, uh, you're just... you have less ability to, to do that kind of analysis. So we found that larger companies are generally advancing faster. 

Naki Mendoza: And then looking at some of these assets that you're referring to specifically on the energy side and the power generation infrastructure side, it's... that's the focus of another one of the, the papers in the journal, um, Resilient Power Gen.

It's a major issue for energy operators. The question of how to meet surging load growth in general, that's daunting enough, but then you have to add a hardening of existing assets plus climate-proofing new ones. I've heard the phrase being used that energy operators have to manage all things everywhere at the same time.

Um, what are some of the toughest trade-offs that you're seeing those in the energy business have to manage? 

Lindsey Hall: I, I think it comes back to that trade-off we were talking about before, Naki, [00:25:00] that you have this huge surge in demand, much of it to meet AI-driven data center, uh, energy demands. Uh, just to put some numbers behind it, um, the S&P Global Energy base case scenario, uh, puts it at an expected 173% growth in global generation capacity, uh, expected by 2050.

So you've got this huge growth that you need to meet, and at the same time you have this increasing risk of climate change. You know, climate hazards are increasing in frequency and severity. And so what we've done in this research is look at sort of the, those two, those two very real trends, uh, to understand how well prepared are these, uh, power generation assets.

How exposed are they to climate physical hazards? And, uh, what we found is that by the 2050s, 87% of existing operating capacity is projected to be exposed to at least [00:26:00] one of these climate hazards. Um, that's using projections from the S&P Global Sustainable1 climate physical risk data set. So it's, it, it, it's a, it's definitely a, a challenging environment to operate in, I would say.

Naki Mendoza: Who pays for physical resilience and adaptation, especially, as you say, at a time when energy affordability is paramount for customers and, and users? 

Lindsey Hall: I mean, I think that is one of the really interesting questions that is playing out right now. Affordability is front and center all around the world, and I think that's also contributing to some of the community pushback that we've seen on data centers that are being built, um, at least in the US.

A-and so I, I think... I don't think that that has entirely been hashed out. I would say watch this space. Uh, that's... You're asking the key question. 

Naki Mendoza: Another very important topic covered in SQ is around the set of issues on AI governance and resilience [00:27:00] models around AI. You describe a honeymoon period around generative AI as sort of coming to an end, and there's growing, mounting concerns, as you just mentioned, as AI takes firmer root across businesses and society.

Describe some of those concerns and, and what the research has found about AI governance. 

Lindsey Hall: Sure, yeah. I think part of what prompted this research was all the headlines that we've been seeing. You know, after we saw a lot of investment in AI by many companies all across sectors all around the world, we're starting to see these high-profile security breaches.

We're seeing, as I mentioned, community pushback against data centers in some parts of the world, and just generally public misgivings about AI's impact on the environment and on society. And s- so in that landscape, we wanted to understand with... just how are companies governing the risks that come with AI?

And what we found, [00:28:00] again, this is using the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, is that many companies heavily invested in AI tools, but they lack robust AI governance. Um, so the CSA showed us that 54% of analyzed firms have not put AI governance practi- sorry, AI governance into practice. And we also found that identifying AI-generated content is a clear weakness among companies that have implemented AI policies.

So if you have AI policies in place, only 40% of those are addressing issues around AI-generated content, and that's another thing we've seen a lot of headlines around recently is AI slop and, you know, how are you governing the way that your content is created. 

Naki Mendoza: So similar to what I'd asked and you had answered earlier about adaptation, who is leading in AI governance?

Recognizing, of course, that this is very much frontier territory for industries and society at large. 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. So [00:29:00] perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the communication services and the IT sectors that are leading the pack. They have the highest percentage of companies in our assessment that have dedicated AI governance policies.

And, you know, that makes sense because they are the ones building AI models, and that gives them direct knowledge of potential risks. Um, and then just from a geographic perspective, we found that g- governance is relatively strong in North America and Europe, but less so in Asia Pacific

Naki Mendoza: So the term is very often and widely used, the term of-- the phrase of winning the AI race. It's used so often that at least to me, it can somewhat come off as diluted or even abstract. From a governance standpoint, what are some concrete measures? What does it mean to win the AI race? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah, I think that's a really good question.

I, I think, you know, we're looking at in the [00:30:00] CSA is whether or not companies have robust policies in place, whether they're outlining those policies in writing, whether they're disclosing those policies. Um, but winning the AI race, I think that is a question that is yet to be determined because again, it's these trade-offs we've been talking about.

You want to make sure that you're not falling behind competitors when it comes to your fluency in this technology and the way that you're applying it. But at the same time, you have to make sure that you're not losing sight of the risks, and those risks are governance-related as, as we've touched on. Um, and then they're also related to community pushback and reputation.

They're related to things like water usage. You know, data centers have an impact on water usage in a community as well, and that's-- those are some of the things that we're seeing bubble to the surface. But I would say this is another watch this space one, Naki, that that answer to that question about who wins the race is not yet determined.[00:31:00] 

Naki Mendoza: And then what are you seeing with regards to the tensions between companies, mainly from the supply side of energy, as you had referenced before, meeting their climate targets, but also their operational mandates to provide firm and reliable power? 

Lindsey Hall: I don't know that companies are-- I wouldn't say that companies are backtracking.

I think what we hear from a lot of companies all over the world is that they committed to their sustainability targets, that they recognize that climate risk is financial risk, that they are hearing from their stakeholders the importance of sustainability, whether that's climate or other aspects of this broad umbrell- umbrella that we've been discussing.

Uh, but I think we've definitely seen a sort of rethink of the way that companies are communicating about these goals and strategies. We're seeing a lot more focus on whether or not companies can make the business case for their sustainability strategies and their climate strategies. Um, so I [00:32:00] think what we saw several years ago was this sort of enthusiastic piling into sustainability and climate goals, um, but they weren't always very well articulated.

How are you going to get from point A to point B, and how is that going to support your business and commercial strategy? So we've seen companies kind of going back to basics, is a term I hear a lot, um, tying their sustainability strategy to their financial decision-making. And then also the other term we hear a lot is, uh, that companies are taking a, quote-unquote, pragmatic approach to sustainability.

And I think at the end of the day, that all comes back to how do you make sure that you're not just talking to a very niche group of stakeholders, but how do you make your sustainability strategy really resonate with a wide group of people, um Whether that's your investors or your customers or your employees or your regulators even 

Naki Mendoza: New York City Climate [00:33:00] Week, it is upon us, September 20th to 27th, the largest and the flagship of the global climate conferences.

You'll be there, of course. What's the general mood of the climate action and climate investment community heading into this year's Climate Week, recognizing that certainly over the past few years, climate change conversations have, have changed in their tone and tenor? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. What's been really interesting in the last couple of years is to see more and more of these local climate weeks pop up.

So this year we had one that I went to in San Francisco. We had one in Washington, D.C. We had the very first one in Zurich, Switzerland. I mean, but really on, I think, every continent. Re- really all around the globe, we've seen these events popping up, and in 2025, there was a lot of trepidation about is Climate Week NYC still gonna be like the big flagship largest event?

Um, because what was happening in the [00:34:00] U.S. at a federal level in terms of pushback on climate was making people a little bit nervous and uncertain. And in 2025, we saw really strong attendance, a lot of events, and I think some of that trepidation has dissipated in 2026, and what I'm hearing is a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of attendance, um, an expected 100,000 attendees, uh, more than 1,000 events taking place.

In some instances, these events where they used to be like big public main stage, some of them are happening in slightly maybe smaller venues behind closed doors, but the convening power, I would say, is still there. And I, I'm... Myself, I'm really excited and, and enthusiastic, and I think it's gonna be some really good conversations in 2026.

Naki Mendoza: So what are some of the signs and some of the conversations that you'll be looking out for that will really tell you that the resilience imperative is tangibly being moved [00:35:00] and actioned on? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. So I should say the resilience imperative, in addition to being the name of the sustainability quarterly research journal we're publishing, is also the name of the event that S&P Global is hosting on September 23rd at Climate Week NYC.

I will be emceeing it. And, um, so I'm, I'm looking forward to talking about resilience through all these different lenses on stage there. That event is taking place as part of The Nest Campus, and The Nest Campus is one of Climate Week NYC's largest gatherings, estimated 10,000 to 12,000 attendees over the three days of that event.

And, uh, that event itself is actually really organized around the idea of the resilience economy. And as the CEO of The Nest Campus told me, the resilience economy just means future-proofing businesses, supply chains, economies, natural systems, and societies. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how that plays out, not just at [00:36:00] our S&P Global event, but across conversations, because all these challenges we've been discussing today have created major disruptions to the status quo, and I'm gonna be listening to hear how are stakeholders managing these disruptions?

How are they creating strategies that can endure volatility? And that ultimately is what we are calling the resilience imperative. And if I may, just on a personal note, I'm gonna be listening with interest to hear what language people are using because again, in 2025 adaptation was the buzzword at Climate Week NYC, and I'm just curious if will it be resilience in 2026, and how will different actors be defining that term?

Naki Mendoza: Over 100,000 actors and stakeholders and participants that are gonna be converging at Climate Week in New York. There's many institutions that contribute to Climate Week and make it a success. What does S&P Global bring that is distinctive? 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. I think at the end of the day, [00:37:00] we have acknowledged, we've talked a lot about all of the disruption that businesses are facing, and at the end of the day, what companies are looking for is a way to help navigate that.

And what S&P Global brings is a lot of data, a lot of intelligence, um, that can help people understand, okay, how is my business going to be potentially impacted? How are my assets going to be impacted? How are my supply chains going to be impacted? What is the future of the global energy mix? These are all questions that S&P Global as a data provider can help navigate 

Naki Mendoza: Are there... 

Give a, give us an example of some events or convenings that will take place at the, at the Nest campus, at the S&P Global event space, that will bring together a really cross-cutting, impactful, um, varieties of stakeholders for these action-oriented dialogues. 

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. I think there's a day of events that [00:38:00] we have planned on September 23rd at the Nest campus, and there's the big sort of flagship event that I mentioned I'll be emceeing called The Resilience Imperative.

And there you're gonna see on stage speakers from the public sector, from the private sector, and you're going to see people from all different industries and all different parts of the world, and really trying to address these challenges b- by, by this convening, because we have this belief that you need to bring all different stakeholders under the tent in order to really find those solutions.

And I'm really excited that after a day of hearing from all these different stakeholders, we're going to end with a very solutions-oriented note. The world faces big sustainability challenges, but I'm going to sit down for a live podcast event to cap off our September 23rd event, where I'll be talking to the CEO of the Earthshot Prize, and that's an initiative that Prince William of Wales launched to find and [00:39:00] scale solutions to the world's biggest environmental challenges by 2030.

So it's laying out the challenges, but it's also really having this focus on solutions that, that's going to be really exciting, I think. 

Naki Mendoza: So Lindsey, as we wrap up, for an executive that's listening to this conversation, what's one question that they should take back to their organization when evaluating whether their strategy is truly resilient?

Lindsey Hall: Yeah. I- we always say in the sustainability space, what gets measured gets managed. So I'd recommend starting with a holistic mapping of all the different factors that can impact your organization's resilience, and that, as we've talked about, includes climate change, geopolitics, energy markets, supply chains.

And then you gather the data you need to measure them, and then you actively track them so you can manage both the risks and the opportunities

Naki Mendoza: Thank you, Lindsey. You've given us a lot to think about in [00:40:00] terms of new frameworks for businesses to think through about the resilience or long-term viability of their operations. You've outlined the complexity of decisions that industries need to weigh to implement a strategy of resilience from energy providers to financial markets to policymakers, but that ultimately true resiliency requires that these sectors of governance and the economy all need to partner and integrate together under, as you said, one big tent.

And you've given us certainly a lot to look forward to in terms of the physical convening of leaders to address these topics at New York City Climate Week and the other events on the sustainability calendar this fall. Thank you for being a guest on this podcast, Lindsey. Well, thanks for the opportunity.

It was a pleasure talking to you, Naki.

Our pleasure. And if you'd like to dive deeper into our research and our blog posts, visit spglobal.com and explore our S&P Global Institute resources. You can also connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening to the Look Forward podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Apple Podcasts, [00:41:00] Spotify, or YouTube and we will see you next time