Technology Brief: Climate Adaptation
Climate Adaption: Technology Overview
For many years, the technological response to climate change focused primarily on mitigation: reducing greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy, electrification and energy efficiency. These efforts remain essential, but they address only one side of the challenge. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, water scarcity and more frequent extreme weather events are already affecting economies, infrastructure and human health. Even ambitious emissions reductions cannot eliminate the need to adapt to climate impacts that are already occurring or expected in the coming decades.
Climate adaptation is creating demand for technologies that help societies, businesses and ecosystems manage these physical risks. Examples include crops that tolerate drought and heat, systems that expand freshwater supplies, buildings that remain safe and comfortable during heatwaves, infrastructure designed to withstand floods and storms, and technologies that help prevent or manage climate-sensitive health risks.
We have defined five technology areas that together capture key technological responses to climate adaptation. By analysing their patent landscapes, we assess how innovation is developing, where technological capabilities are concentrated and which companies are building strong positions in relevant technologies.
Patents provide an early indicator of technological development, often before new solutions reach widespread commercial adoption. Analysing patent activity, ownership and technological strength can therefore help reveal emerging innovation trends and identify companies developing potentially valuable adaptation technologies. While patents do not guarantee commercial success, they offer a systematic way to examine the technological foundations of this evolving field.
Explore the five technology areas below for an overview of their scope, applications and significance.
Water Security
What it covers:
Desalination of seawater and brackish water, membrane-based water treatment and reuse, atmospheric water generation, rainwater harvesting and storage, efficient irrigation, and technologies that reduce water losses and improve water-use efficiency.
Climate change is altering the availability and reliability of freshwater in many regions, intensifying existing pressures from drought, population growth, agricultural demand and groundwater depletion. Water security technologies help diversify supplies, reduce consumption and improve the resilience of water systems. Reverse osmosis and advanced membranes can turn seawater and wastewater into usable water, atmospheric water generators extract moisture from air, and drip irrigation and precision irrigation systems help deliver water to crops more efficiently.
Why it matters:
Agriculture accounts for the largest share of global freshwater withdrawals, while cities, industries and ecosystems also face growing competition for limited supplies. Technologies that expand usable water resources, improve distribution and reduce demand can help communities and businesses manage increasingly variable water availability. This creates opportunities for desalination and water-treatment specialists, membrane producers, irrigation technology companies and providers of water-management systems.
Food & Agriculture
What it covers:
Crop traits for drought, heat and salinity tolerance; biostimulants and crop inputs targeting abiotic stress; protected cultivation, including greenhouses and weather-protection structures; controlled-environment and vertical farming; heat-stress protection for livestock; and cold-chain technologies that reduce food losses under hot conditions.
Agriculture is directly exposed to changing temperatures, rainfall patterns and the increasing frequency of certain extreme weather events. Heat stress, drought and salinity can reduce yields and threaten food security. Adaptation technologies help maintain production under these changing conditions. Crop breeding and genetic engineering can improve tolerance to environmental stress, while greenhouses and protective structures shield crops from adverse weather. Controlled-environment agriculture offers greater control over growing conditions, while livestock cooling and resilient cold-chain systems can help reduce heat-related losses in animal production and after harvest.
Why it matters:
Climate-related disruptions to agricultural production can affect food availability, prices and supply-chain reliability. Technologies that help maintain yields, protect crops and reduce losses under adverse conditions may become increasingly valuable as growing conditions become less predictable. Relevant opportunities span agricultural biotechnology, seed development, specialised crop inputs, protected cultivation and technologies for controlled-environment production. The focus is on solutions with a clear adaptation function, rather than agricultural productivity technologies in general.
Heat Resilience
What it covers:
Passive cooling of buildings and cities, including radiative cooling, cool roofs and pavements, and green roofs and facades; solar shading and solar-control or dynamic glazing; thermal insulation and phase-change materials; and active cooling technologies such as air conditioning, evaporative cooling and district cooling.
Rising temperatures and more frequent or intense heatwaves increase risks to human health, buildings and economic activity. Heat resilience technologies help limit indoor and outdoor heat exposure while managing the energy required to maintain safe and comfortable temperatures. Passive approaches reduce heat gains through reflective surfaces, radiative cooling, shading, vegetation and improved building envelopes. Active systems remove excess heat, with a growing emphasis on efficiency and reliable operation under high ambient temperatures.
Why it matters:
Growing cooling needs in hot regions, combined with rising temperatures and urbanisation, are increasing the importance of effective heat management. Active cooling represents an established and substantial market, while passive cooling and improved building design offer ways to reduce heat exposure and limit additional electricity demand. Technologies that combine thermal comfort, resilience and energy efficiency can help buildings and cities adapt without relying exclusively on more energy-intensive cooling.
Extreme Weather & Infrastructure
What it covers:
Flood protection and stormwater management; coastal protection and breakwaters; storm- and wind-resistant building components; slope and rockfall protection; wildfire detection and suppression; floating and amphibious buildings; and weather forecasting, early-warning systems and climate-risk assessment.
Floods, storms, landslides and wildfires can damage buildings, disrupt essential services and threaten lives. Climate change can alter the frequency, intensity or impacts of these hazards, although trends vary by hazard and region. Adaptation technologies help protect physical assets, reduce disruption and improve preparedness. Flood barriers, drainage systems and coastal structures manage water risks; reinforced components and protective shutters improve building resilience; slope-protection systems help reduce landslide and rockfall risks; and wildfire detection and suppression technologies support emergency response. Weather observation, early-warning systems and climate-risk modelling provide information that helps authorities, businesses and communities anticipate and manage hazards.
Why it matters:
Infrastructure and buildings constructed today must remain functional under changing environmental conditions over their lifetimes. As governments, utilities, businesses and property owners assess physical climate risks, technologies that improve resilience and preparedness can play an important role in investment decisions. Relevant innovation spans resilient construction materials and components, flood and coastal engineering, specialised protection systems, weather intelligence and climate-risk analytics. The emphasis is on technologies that help manage identifiable physical hazards, rather than construction or forecasting technologies in general.
Health
What it covers:
Vaccines and therapeutics for climate-sensitive infectious diseases, including malaria, dengue, chikungunya, leptospirosis and Lyme disease; vector-control technologies such as insecticides, repellents, treated nets and mosquito traps; and personal cooling and heat-stress prevention technologies for people exposed to extreme heat.
Climate-related changes in temperature, rainfall and flooding can influence the distribution and transmission conditions of certain infectious diseases. Mosquitoes and ticks may expand into new regions where environmental conditions become more favourable, while flooding can increase exposure to some waterborne pathogens. Heatwaves also pose direct risks to vulnerable populations and people working outdoors. Health adaptation technologies address these risks through disease prevention and treatment, vector control and measures that help protect people from dangerous heat exposure. Veterinary applications may also be relevant where animal health, disease transmission and human health intersect.
Why it matters:
Climate-sensitive health risks can create new or changing demands for prevention, surveillance and treatment, including in regions with limited prior exposure to particular diseases. Vaccines and therapeutics targeting relevant pathogens, effective vector-control solutions and technologies that reduce heat stress can contribute to adaptation. The focus is on technologies with a clearly identifiable application to climate-sensitive disease or heat-health protection, rather than pharmaceutical, pest-control or cooling products in general.
Global trends: sharp rise in Climate Adaption patents
Global patent development in Climate Adaption technologies
Active Patents in Climate Adaption have tripled in 10 years
Climate adaptation patenting has grown strongly and without interruption. The count rose from about 87,300 in 2015 to roughly 253,200 in 2026, almost three times as many, which works out to about 10% compound annual growth.
Global development of patents in the five Climate Adaption areas
Heat Resilience is the largest patent area within Climate Adaption
Heat Resilience (active and passive cooling) dominates climate adaptation patenting with about 46% of patents, growing steadily at roughly 9% a year. The fastest-growing field by far is Weather & Infrastructure, which grew almost sevenfold since 2015, about 19% a year, and overtook Food & Agriculture in 2024. Food & Agriculture and Water Security roughly tripled after a mid-period slowdown, Health has stagnated at only about 4% annual growth, and all fields rose sharply in 2025.
Top research countries in Climate Adaption
Top Countries – Total Patents
Top Countries – World-Class Patents
Top research companies in Climate Adaption
The top 20 companies hold about 20% of all climate adaptation patents in 2026, and the three Chinese appliance makers Gree, Midea and Haier alone account for two-thirds of that, far ahead of everyone else. Chinese firms hold about 79% of the group’s patents, Japanese firms about 17%, Korea and the US only small shares, and no European company makes the list. About 92% of the group’s patents come from air-conditioning and appliance makers, which ties in with Heat Resilience as the largest sub-field, while five Chinese state-owned construction groups form a smaller second cluster linked to Weather & Infrastructure.
World-Class Patents: Top 20 companies
On world-class patents, China’s lead largely holds up: Midea, Gree and Haier still hold about 70% of the top 20’s high-quality patents, with Midea moving into first place thanks to a better quality ratio than Gree. Quality ratios vary widely, from almost 30% world-class patents at Hisense and about 20% at Midea, LG, Samsung and Hitachi to under 10% for the Chinese construction groups, whose large portfolios appear to be mostly lower-impact domestic filings. The quality ranking also brings in agriculture leaders Corteva, Bayer and BASF and building-materials firm Saint-Gobain, the only European companies in either ranking, which shows Food & Agriculture has quality champions despite low volumes. Overall, Chinese firms hold about 76% of the group’s world-class patents, Japan about 15%, and Korea, Europe and the US only 2–4% each.
Specialists: Top 20 companies
The specialist ranking only includes companies that hold at least 10% of their total patent portfolio in Advanced Digital Trust & Security. This highlights businesses for which these technologies are a central part of their innovation activity and which are therefore likely to benefit most directly from their growth.
Palo Alto Networks leads with 173 patents, followed by Zscaler with 119, Fortinet with 84 and CrowdStrike with 71. The highest degrees of specialisation are found at Tenable, with 41.9% of its portfolio in Advanced Digital Trust & Security, followed by Rapid7, Netskope and Zscaler, each at more than 25%. Alongside established security vendors such as Check Point, CyberArk, Okta and Cloudflare, the ranking also includes companies from neighbouring fields: IonQ through quantum-secure communication, Coinbase through cryptographic key protection, and Mitek through digital identity verification.