Kate Simmonds

Senior Manager, Climate Resilience

Kate is the Senior Manager, Climate Resilience at the Investor Group on Climate Change. She is responsible for uplifting investor understanding and action on physical risk, advocating for effective adaptation policy, and supporting opportunities for private investment in resilience.

Kate has also worked within IGCC’s Corporate Engagement team, where she focused on the political, economic, and technical challenges of decarbonising the Australian gas sector. She also supported international projects, such as the Climate Action 100+ Sector Strategies and Net-Zero Company Benchmark.

Previously, Kate worked in the insurance sector as a Senior Climate Analyst for WTW. She led the development of their Australia and New Zealand climate change strategy and built their first physical climate risk models, covering bushfire, flood, and cyclone. She was a member of the Insurance Council of Australia’s Climate Change Action Committee and contributed to the Climate Measurement Standards Initiative.

Kate has a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) from the University of Sydney, a First Class Honours in Climate Science from the University of New South Wales and has recently submitted her PhD at the University of Melbourne.

Contacts

Email Kate
LinkedIn

Physical Climate Risk Assessments of Infrastructure Assets

Report | Marwa Curran, Kate Simmonds and IGCC's Real Assets Sub Working Group | June 2025

This report synthesises the Phase 2 results of the Real Assets Sub-Working Group, comprised of investors in real assets and convened by the Investor Group on Climate Change. In 2024, the group focused on the challenges related to assessing the physical climate-related risks to and resilience of infrastructure holdings.

Download

Investor PracticeInvestor Practice Working GroupPhysical Risk, Adaptation & Resilience

Submission: Improving productivity via meeting adaptation and mitigation objectives

12 June 2025

There will be a cost to meeting carbon targets, but this will be significantly lower than the cost of inaction towards a net-zero, resilient economy, as we wrote in our submission to the Productivity Commission's enquiry "Investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation".
AustraliaDecarbonising the EconomyEnergy Transition Working GroupPolicy & AdvocacyPolicy & Advocacy Working Group

Activating Private Capital for Climate Adaptation

6 November 2024

New research released as the federal government is working on its next major climate priorities: The National Climate Risk Assessment and Australia's National Adaptation Plan.
Physical Risk, Adaptation & ResiliencePolicy & AdvocacyPolicy & Advocacy Working Group

Activating Private Investment in Adaptation

Report | Kate Simmonds, Fergus Pitt, Stephen Catchpole, Olivia Kember, Bronte Wild | November 2024

Turning capital flight risk into the next multibillion opportunity

Download

Physical Risk, Adaptation & ResiliencePolicy & AdvocacyPrivate: Physical Risk & Resilience

Submission: National Adaptation Plan to manage physical risks for economy

Submission | Kate Simmonds | 17 April 2024

The first National Adaptation Plan provides is an important opportunity to do this and should consider:
  1. Including a co-developed private finance strategy and plan.
  2. Aligning adaptation across government climate change activities.
  3. Facilitating public-private partnerships and developing frameworks to manage complex adaptation challenges.
  4. Developing and co-funding case studies for best practice private and public-private financing of adaptation and resilience.

Download

Physical Risk, Adaptation & ResiliencePolicy & AdvocacyPolicy & Advocacy Working GroupPrivate: Physical Risk & Resilience