Senior Business Roundtable with EY and REA: Resilience by Design
Resilience by Design: Accelerating investment in an electrified world
~20-person strategic roundtable in the UNFCCC Blue Zone, hosted by Colm Devine EY Global Vice Chair – Sustainability.
Who defines resilience, who pays, and how can all markets benefit?
As economies electrify, resilient energy systems become essential to reliable services, competitive businesses and climate adaptation. Embedding resilience in planning, design and investment decisions, not simply protecting assets after construction, raises a central question: can resilience by design accelerate investment and delivery, rather than add cost, delay or exclusion, and how does this converge with existing sustainability priorities to build the case for integrated investment?
This EY / REA roundtable uses the backdrop of an evolving energy-security and infrastructure investment debate as a starting point, for a global conversation on resilience, electrification and adaptation. With leaders from industry, finance, and sustainability we will examine the strategies, standards, incentives and financing needed to make resilience an investment enabler, while protecting affordability and access.
Discussion Themes:
Defining resilience: Who sets and validates resilience expectations? How should investment decisions account for local climate hazards, essential services and dependencies across assets and systems?
Delivery: What would make early resilience planning accelerate projects rather than become another approval layer? Explore proportionate requirements, clearer responsibilities, grids, renewables, storage, flexibility and digital innovation.
Paying for it. Who bears when assets are built with insufficient resilience design? What evidence would justify incentives, different financing terms or insurance treatment—and how should costs be shared? How should businesses weigh near-term cost against avoided disruption, emissions reductions and longer-term resilience—and where might these objectives conflict?
Scaling it fairly. How can developing markets meet resilience expectations without compromising affordability or access? Inputs on local capacity, project preparation and finance, alongside consumer participation and lessons from South Africa, India / ASEAN.