Tailwind Futures’ Taxonomy for Adaptation and Resilience Investments is a classification and exploration framework designed to empower investors and funders to identify and support adaptation and resilience projects and companies. The Taxonomy highlights climate adaptation needs and opportunities across society and the economy, providing over 400 examples of investable solutions, financial instruments, and philanthropic interventions.

The Taxonomy was first published in May 2024 and revised in September 2026. The 2026 update addressed user feedback and reflects Tailwind’s evolving view of the market needs and opportunities, with updates to select sectors and a more granular breakdown of solution types. The Taxonomy (Excel) and Companion Deck contain a detailed breakdown of the changes for consistency.

Download the 2026 A&R Taxonomy and Companion Deck.

Themes and Sectors

The Taxonomy distills the complexities of climate adaptation and resilience into 8 overarching themes and 36 sectors, encompassing diverse areas such as Water and Sanitation, Ecosystems, and Industry and Commerce, including sectors like Healthcare Services & Medical Facilities, Financial Services, and Construction.

Investment Opportunities by Sector

Solution Categories

The new solutions categories break away from the traditional software/hardware divide to reflect the full spectrum of technologies available on the market, including physical AI, sensors, autonomous drones and robotics as their own category, separate from advanced materials and other engineered solutions where the AI/digital layer is not core to the value proposition.

The Tailwind Taxonomy is a classification and exploration tool. It should be used in tandem with the definitions provided in the Companion Deck to help determine whether individual projects or investments are, in fact, adaptation. We also encourage users to consider maladaptation when assessing projects or investment opportunities.

The intended audience(s) of this taxonomy include:

• Investors, donors and researchers looking to classify projects, activities, solutions or companies in a structured, consistent set of themes and sub-themes of relevance to adaptation and resilience. 
• Investors and donors looking to identify whether an existing or new project, company or product could have adaptation and resilience benefits.
• Anyone curious about climate adaptation and resilience, who is interested in understanding how climate change may impact different economic sectors, ecosystems, or society. Users can explore examples of technologies, products, services, financial and insurance products or enabling interventions that may help mitigate these impacts.

Theme Highlight: Food, Agriculture and Forestry

In the Excel spreadsheet, we provide examples of solutions and investment opportunities for each sector, as illustrated above for Crop Production under Food, Agrictulture and Forestry. The deck includes similar highlights for each of the eight themes.

Credits

The 2024 Taxonomy for Adaptation and Resilience Investments was developed by Tailwind with funding and support from ClimateWorks Foundation, and peer-reviewed by a broad group of investors and philanthropies for usability and completeness. Key partners in this effort included the Global Adaptation and Resilience Investor group (GARI)’s Climate Resilience Investment in Solutions Principles, the Climate Bonds Initiative’s Resilience Taxonomy, the Climate Policy Institute’s adaptation and Resilience Finance practice, and Vibrant Data Labs’ Climate Finance Tracker.

The 2026 update was conducted in-house based on feedback from practitioners and our own market view and experience using the Taxonomy since its initial release. Any error or omission is Tailwind’s sole responsibility.

Feedback and questions are welcome: info@tailwindfutures.com or via our Contact Form.

Downloads

The following documents can be downloaded and are openly licensed for non-commercial use via Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0. Contact us to discuss commercial use.

• Full Taxonomy September 2026 Update (Excel Spreadsheet)
• Companion Deck September 2026 Update (PDF)