Building capabilities for blended finance
Intervention point
Cities are a focal point for the decarbonisation challenge. Decarbonising cities requires immense sums of capital. To raise these, cities must leverage traditional continuous streams of resources to access new and alternative sources of capital. This requires skills and capabilities that are less common in the public sector.
Current situation
Globally, the built environment produces 37 percent of energy-related carbon emissions. To limit global warming to 1.5ºC, as is set out in the Paris Agreement, built environment-related emissions need to be drastically reduced.
This makes cities an important focal point for this reduction, as individual buildings and public infrastructure are heavily intertwined through energy systems at district level and intensity of public transport provision.
Considering current levels of city funding and investments, it is clear that municipal administrations will need to rely on redirection of increased public and private investments to achieve the necessary decarbonisation goals.
However, this strategy of accessing and harnessing alternative financing streams for large-scale multi-faceted projects in municipalities is neither common nor self-explanatory, and building capabilities and skill sets in cities at all levels of administration is key to unlocking the necessary funding for decarbonisation efforts.
How to get involved
Apply for support at the City Gap Fund here: https://www.citygapfund.org/apply-for-support
Cities in Eastern Europe are eligible for the Global Covenant of Mayors Bankable Cities’ Climate Project. A new call for applications was live until April 2023. Find more information here: https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/press/bankable-cities-climate-projects-apply-now/
An overview of EU administered support and advice programmes can be found here: https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-efficiency/financing/capacity-building-and-technical-assistance_en
The Net Zero Cities programme community of practice can be joined here: https://netzerocities.eu/community-of-practice
For more updates from the Net Zero Cities programme about the financing tool, knowledge hub, or training modules, sign up to their newsletter or find out more about the programme on the website.
Interested in finding out more? Click here to download the full technical briefing.
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Last updated: July 2023
Connected interventions
