Why energy reliability hinges on the contract more than the plant Gas to power When winter storm Uri knocked out power
across Texas five years ago, it was a worst-case scenario for the millions of people left freezing in the dark in the most energy-rich state of the world’s largest economy. That’s what can happen when reliable electricity capacity falls short.
Singapore treats its infrastructure as a single, integrated system, mandating that every new building contribute to rather than simply draw from, the city-state's resources. Wastewater is recycled into buildings, which increasingly have green walls and roofs. Some 80 percent of its buildings are on course to be “greened” (meeting minimum energy standards) by 2030 13 . Singapore’s unified approach to resilience underscores the importance of coordination frameworks for implementing plans across regional and political boundaries. Climate effects don’t stop at city or county limits. That’s a real barrier to effective resilience in more politically contentious societies like the United States. Southern Florida, among the most vulnerable regions to rising sea levels, has shown the value of a bipartisan approach. Politically diverse counties, including Miami- Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach, have been coordinating since 2009 to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions, implement adaptation strategies and build climate resilience 14 . References 1. C40 Cities. 2018. "Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding." C40 Cities. https://www.c40.org/what-we-do/scaling-up-climate-action/water-heat-nature/ the-future-we-dont-want/sea-level-rise/ 2. CDP. 2025. "From Climate Risk to Investment Opportunity: Filling the Funding Gap for Cities." September 19. https://www.cdp.net/en/insights/from-climate-risk-to-investment-opportunity 3. CDP. 2025. "From Climate Risk to Investment Opportunity: Filling the Funding Gap for Cities." September 19. https://www.cdp.net/en/insights/from-climate-risk-to-investment-opportunity 4. Flavelle, Christopher, and Mira Rojanasakul. 2024. "As Insurers Around the U.S. Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks, Homeowners Lose." New York Times, May 13. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/13/climate/insurance-homes- climate-change-weather.html 5. Sganga, Nicole. 2026. "New Analysis Warns FEMA Overhaul Would Make Disaster Aid Harder to Access, Shifting Costs to Survivors." CBS News, June 9. https://www. cbsnews.com/news/new-analysis-fema-overhaul-trump-disaster-aid/ 6. SIFMA. 2026. "US Municipal Bonds Statistics." June 15. https://www.sifma.org/research/statistics/us-municipal-bonds-statistics 7. Baker, Christina. 2025. "New York Thruway Authority Rings in New Year with a Refunding Deal." Bond Buyer, December 29. https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/new- york-thruway-authority-rings-in-new-year-with-a-refunding-deal
A hopeful moment Despite the growing climate threats to aging
Hassan Modarresi Senior Technical Director , GHD
infrastructure, I believe we’re at a hopeful moment. The financial calculus is changing in a way that makes the fallacy of “saving money” on less resilient projects clearer than ever. Meanwhile, the growing real-world effects of our changing climate will make it increasingly costly to pursue any infrastructure approach other than a unified, systemic one. More than ever, infrastructure has to be durable, cost- effective and efficient. It’s time for leaders to stop evaluating projects purely by sticker price and instead mandate life-cycle cost analyses that provide a true picture of their value.
8. Eng, Monica. 2025. "Chicago City Council Passes Controversial Bond." Axios, February 26. https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2025/02/26/chicago-city- council-passes-controversial-bond 9. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Allstate, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. 2024. The Preparedness Payoff: The Economic Benefits of Investing in Climate Resilience. June 25. https://www.uschamber.com/security/the-preparedness- payoff-the-economic-benefits-of-investing-in-climate-resilience 10. de la Garza, Alejandro. 2021. "Engineers Bent the Rules, and May Have Saved New Orleans." Time, September 2. https://time.com/6094221/hurricane-ida-engineering- protection/ 11. Vahedifard, Farshid. 2026. "West Coast Levee Failures Show the Rising Risks from America's Aging Flood Defenses." The Conversation, January 5. https:// theconversation.com/west-coast-levee-failures-show-the-rising-risks-from- americas-aging-flood-defenses-272556 12. C40 Knowledge Hub. n.d. "How Amsterdam Is Transitioning to a Circular Economy." https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/How-Amsterdam-is-transitioning-to-a- circular-economy?language=en_US 13. Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore. 2026. "Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP)." Last updated March 18. https://www1.bca.gov.sg/ sustainability/sgbmp/ 14. Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. 2023. "Our Initiatives." November 2. https://southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/our-initiatives/
R enewables already supply more than a third of Texas’s power and they do so relatively cheaply. But when disruptions inevitably occur, gas power should fill the void. The Uri crunch highlighted how ambitions for disruption-free electricity capacity depend on building the markets to finance that power. During Uri, frozen wellheads and unwinterised plants made gas the largest source of capacity outages, highlighting the need to incentivise providers to invest in readiness.⁴
Texas is an example of an electricity market where returns on what should be a lucrative commodity are often insufficient to justify the investment required to build it. Texas is far from alone. The same design runs through the world's handful of "energy-only" markets, where generators are paid for the electricity they deliver but not for simply being available to deliver it.
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