The Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) convened a virtual workshop on January 25-26, 2022 – the second in a series on U.S. wildfire resilience. As wildfires increase in scale and intensity across the West, various stakeholders now have new incentives to participate and address the wildfire crisis together. This convening brought together leading experts to discuss how innovative financing structures and private capital might be used to increase investments in resilience, and therefore reduce the negative wildfire impacts that are threatening more and more areas, especially in the West. This workshop highlighted effective models such as environmental impact bonds, partnerships with utilities, and new insurance products as solutions to build resilience. Summarized in the report are the lessons learned from these models, future policy changes at federal and state levels that could scale efforts and contribute to the paradigm shift necessary for the country to adapt to climate change driven wildfire increases, and other key points of conversation.