Wednesday - June 10th, 2026
Apple News
×

What can we help you find?

Open Menu
June 10th, 2026

Innovative Climate Finance – Kanika Singh, Milken Institute, Director of Catalytic Capital

  1. Innovative Climate Finance – Kanika Singh, Milken Institute, Director of Catalytic Capital Joan Michelson 48:24

“We’re seeing hurricanes, four of the 10 most damaging hurricanes in the United States happened in the last 10 years. Recovery and rebuild continues in many cases. Last year we had the world’s most expensive wildfire on record in Los Angeles. These are market failures. Why are these things happening? Something is misaligned. Is it we’re not taking care of the natural environment? Is it that our built environment, our buildings and our structures are not able to cope? Where are the policies? Where are the updated building codes?…Now these storms are happening more frequently and with greater intensity and impacting a lot more people, people, communities, companies. It’s across the U.S. Everybody’s being impacted. So that’s the market failure. So how do we fix this?”

Kanika Singh on Electric Ladies Podcast

Every community in the U.S. and across the globe is now at risk from the ravages of climate change. What is your community doing to prepare? Kanika Singh calls these damages “market failures” because the market did not protect you/us from the damages. How?

Listen to Kanika Singh, Director of Innovative Finance at the Milken Institute in this enlightening conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson. (You’ll want to take notes.)

You’ll hear about:

● How to identify the market failures in your community, area or region.

● What the role and risk is of insurance companies in today’s physical, economic and political climate.

● Financial resources you might tap to make your homes and buildings more climate-resilient (including parts of the Inflation Reduction Act & Infrastructure Act that are still intact).

● How to rebuild differently so your homes, businesses, schools etc. are more resilient.

● Plus, career advice, such as:

” Don’t hesitate. Trust your gut…Try everything. Try what’s out there, go for a walk. Clear your brain. The outdoors always helps. You will find something, and if you don’t the first time around, that’s still okay because we are getting chances…. Look, learn, but don’t be afraid to take a chance, and if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay. I think we hold ourselves to very high and perhaps exacting standards of success sometimes. And that’s not human. It’s okay to be human.”

Kanika Singh on Electric Ladies Podcast

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special Coaching offers.

You’ll also like:

· Impact Investing in New Hands – with Jolyne Caruso, Financial Executive, Investor and Wealth Advisor

· How to Talk Climate In a Polarized Culture – with Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist, Professor at Texas Tech University & Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy

· How Hospitals Can Juggle 24/7 Care & Climate Impacts – Carol Gomes, CEO & COO, Stony Brook University Hospital

· New Venture Capital Models For Women and CleanTech – Cecile Blilious, Veteran Venture Investor, Venture ESG, European Women in VC

· Creativity & Relationships Secure Grants – with Megan Pater, CEO/Founder of Fund Nation and ECE Solutions

· Investing in Companies For Social Impact – with Meredith Shields, CEO of Citi Impact Fund

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers.

Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review!

Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

Joan Michelson Electric Ladies Podcast - Innovation, Energy, Climate, Careers

Joan Michelson, MBA is a highly accomplished business leader and award-winning strategic social impact and ESG – environment, social, governance – leader, who drove breakthrough results at Chrysler (in EVs), American Express and Deloitte, small businesses, and government agencies. She is an instructor on ESG issues to professionals, leaders and board members across industries. Her specialties include leveraging ESG solutions and partnerships strategically for maximum benefit, helping organizations recruit innovative, diverse women, and helping these women thrive in their careers. She is based in the Washington D.C. area.

Joan is also an accomplished journalist who has worked with top media organizations and hosts and produces the acclaimed Electric Ladies podcast (formerly known as Green Connections Radio), about innovation and leadership in energy-, climate- and sustainability-related issues across industries, featuring women experts.

She writes regularly for Forbes on these issues and has also been in the Harvard Business Review, HuffPost, TheAtlantic.com, Greenbiz, The New Economy magazine (distributed at the World Economic Forum), New Thinking magazine, regional business journals; and various other media. She coproduced segments with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” ABC News, and “The Crusaders,” and television specials on NBC.

Joan has spent her career working in energy-sustainability-climate-ESG issues and in marketing communications, including as head of communications and co-leader of the sales and marketing team of Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), driving “best year ever” growth and significantly accelerated the adoption of electric vehicles. Prior to GEM, she led marketing communications efforts to high-net-worth and high-visibility clients in management consulting-financial services companies Deloitte and American Express. She's a native of NYC and has a BA from UCLA, an MBA from Baruch College at City University of NY, and post-graduate studies at Harvard Business School, The New School and The Aspen Institute, among others. She has a Sustainability and ESG certification from Competent Boards.