Resilience Is Underwriting: Insurance Pressure, BRIC Uncertainty, and Microgrid-Backed Deals

Resilience used to be a design conversation. In 2026 it’s a financing conversation—because insurers, lenders, and buyers are pricing climate volatility into terms and valuations.

FEMA’s BRIC program has been a key resilience funding channel historically, but recent reporting has underscored significant uncertainty. In December 2025, AP reported a federal judge ordered the restoration of billions of dollars in canceled disaster mitigation funding connected to BRIC, after the administration moved to end the program and halt awarded-but-unpaid grants. Whatever the policy outcome, the market signal is clear: resilience funding pathways can change quickly, and capital must plan for that uncertainty.

What does “resilience underwriting” look like in practice?

1) Treat insurance as a variable, not an assumption.Premiums, deductibles, and exclusions can shift year to year. That volatility changes DSCR and cash flow stability—especially for coastal and wildfire-exposed assets.

2) Finance hardening measures as value protection.Elevation, flood barriers, envelope upgrades, smoke/air quality improvements, and redundancy systems aren’t just costs—they protect income and liquidity.

3) Make microgrids and backup power financeable. Microgrids are increasingly viewed as revenue-protection infrastructure. They can also unlock tenant demand for reliability (especially in critical uses).

4) Build lender-ready disclosure.Resilience plans, hazard assessments, and operating protocols are moving into diligence checklists. In 2026, transparency can be cheaper than uncertainty.

EIG’s lens is that resilience is now part of “capital structuring at the nexus.” Transit-oriented districts need reliable systems. Energy-adjacent projects need redundancy. And zoning reform that adds density can amplify the need for resilient infrastructure.

The winning teams will treat resilience like a product: scoped, priced, staged, governed, and reported. That is how you turn climate risk into financeable execution.