Climate change is already impacting people, communities, and economies around the world—from more extreme storms damaging infrastructure, to longer and more severe heat waves making outdoor work dangerous, to changing precipitation patterns affecting agriculture. For humanity to thrive, policies to confront climate change must treat adaptation as a co-equal partner with mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. But where is adaptation to climate change needed most? And what investments will deliver the greatest benefits?
Answering these questions is a new focus for the Climate Impact Lab, building on a decade of evidence-based research on the impacts of climate change, sector-by-sector and community-by-community around the world. The Lab will now develop a global playbook of data-driven, tested adaptation strategies to address the greatest impacts in the most vulnerable regions—largely in the Global South.
Genevieve Maricle will lead this expanded mission as the Lab’s new executive director. She is well positioned for the role, having spent nearly two decades working at the nexus of climate and development policy at the White House, USAID, U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and World Wildlife Fund.
“Just as a journey requires a map, effective climate adaptation depends on knowing where action is most needed and which investments will have the greatest impact. We’re providing that roadmap by pinpointing climate risks and the places where adaptation investments can deliver the biggest benefits,” says Michael Greenstone, a co-founder of the Climate Impact Lab and the director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth and Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. “Genevieve’s combination of deep experience working with partners in the Global South, including on climate adaptation planning, and her passion to help the world manage climate risks is unique. We’re thrilled to have her lead our efforts as CIL’s mission grows.”
Maricle served as the director of climate policy and previously the director of global development at the White House National Security Council, where she oversaw issues on climate security, resilience and adaptation. At USAID, Maricle led international climate policy efforts as senior advisor on climate and environment. In a previous stint at USAID, she led policy efforts on Sustainable Development Goals and helped to set strategic budget priorities for the Global Climate Change Initiative.
“At a moment when the speed of observed climate impacts is outpacing even what we had feared, getting our interventions right has never mattered more—to communities, to economies, to people all over the world,” says Maricle. “Few places are as uniquely well positioned to provide the targeted analysis of both local impacts and actionable solutions the world urgently needs as the Climate Impact Lab. I am honored to join this team at such a consequential time, particularly as the global landscape continues to shift in ways that demand both deeper knowledge and bolder action.”
Maricle also served as senior policy advisor on sustainable development and climate change to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, leading efforts surrounding both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and for the latter, served as the deputy lead U.S. negotiator.
“Genevieve Maricle is the kind of person the climate crisis demands: someone who understands that the distance between a negotiating table and a flooded village is not as great as it seems, and who has spent her career closing that gap. I watched Genevieve navigate some of the most complex multilateral negotiations of our time with technical command, strategic instinct, and genuine moral seriousness,” says Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard University and former USAID Administrator and U.S. Ambassador to the UN. “The Climate Impact Lab is gaining someone who knows how the best research translates into policy, and how policy translates into action that can alter the fates of individuals and communities. I can think of no better person for this work.”
Previously, Maricle was the director of climate policy action at the World Wildlife Fund, leading the group’s climate ambition and diplomacy work. She received her BA in mathematics and environmental science from Northwestern University, and PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in climate science policy.
“Genevieve represents what global climate leadership truly requires. I learned during the COP presidency and my years at WWF that the gap between ambition and action is never closed by speeches—it’s closed by people who can unite coalitions, translate knowledge into strategy, and drive institutions toward real outcomes,” says Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global lead for climate and energy at the World Wildlife Fund and former Peruvian minister of the environment and COP20 president. “Genevieve is one of those rare leaders. She spots opportunity where others see obstacles, and she moves people toward decisive action with conviction, joy, and purpose. With her, the Climate Impact Lab is gaining not just a brilliant policy mind, but a catalyst—someone who can shift systems and steer this moment toward the action the climate crisis demands.”
Expanded Mission to Guide Adaptation Strategies
Governments are increasingly prioritizing the need to adapt to climate change, with countries setting a goal of tripling international adaptation finance at COP30 last year. Unfortunately, the recognition of adaptation’s central importance is matched by a very poor understanding of where it is needed most and what strategies will work best in those places.
The Lab is well poised to provide this information, allowing governments, funders, businesses, and people on the ground to set priorities based on data and ensure that limited resources are spent effectively. The insights will also help the academic community identify new areas of research and assess the efficacy of adaptation policies and programs to inform where and how they can potentially be scaled.
This expanded mission leverages the Lab’s comprehensive body of peer-reviewed research quantifying the impacts of climate change on mortality, agricultural productivity, labor supply, energy demand and coastal flooding risk. The research formed the basis for the US Government’s social cost of carbon and has been used by the International Monetary Fund and Federal Reserve, private companies like Nike, Microsoft and Realtor.com, and the United Nations Development Programme in building their Human Climate Horizons data platform.
