The Way to Financing Sustainable and Resilient Urban Infrastructure - getting the private sector on-board

Across the globe, cities have progressively become key actors in the fight against climate change, they are both critical emitters of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and places of increasing vulnerability. Investing in low-emission and resilient urban infrastructure is key to reducing emissions as cities are responsible for more than 70% of global GHG emissions. In the next decade, trillions of dollars will be required to support the development of the necessary sustainable infrastructure projects. In order to ensure that the required financing has a multi-beneficial impact, the focus must be on building resilient infrastructure that can withstand the effects of climate change and provide access to affordable clean energy. Resilient infrastructure must be contextually relevant. In other words, economically sustainable, not burden the country with unrealistic debt, nor provide unaffordable services to citizens that lock them into an unsustainable future. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to work in a participatory way with all citizens, the private sector, and to co-create solutions that are adapted to the local context. Cities around the world have made commitments to initiatives like the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), the regional chapter of Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), and C40 Cities. Through these initiatives, cities are developing climate action plans that identify the priority needs for their citizens. CoM SSA and the CFF facilitate access to finance for climate change mitigation and resilience projects in urban areas by providing technical assistance to develop cities’ sustainability priorities into finance-ready investment proposals. Through FELICITY, the European Investment Bank as the EU climate bank supports cities’ access to climate finance and innovates with partners like CoM SSA to crowd-in private finance to finance the urban transformation. The event will bring city representatives together with donors and financing institutions to have an honest conversation around the need to work collaboratively on project preparation facilitation according to the needs and priorities of local governments and their communities.