- ORGANISED BY C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
- VENUE Hilton Mexico City Reforma Hotel
- TIME 10.30 - 11.30
Cities cannot deliver on the ambitions of the Paris Agreement without access to finance for sustainable infrastructure projects. Under Mayor Paes’ leadership, C40 is working with partners to bridge the gap through initiatives such as the C40 Cities Finance Facility, the Financing Sustainable Cities Initiative, and the Call for Action on Municipal Infrastructure Finance. One year on from COP21, partners, funders and mayors will explore the progress made and what more needs to be done to support cities to access finance for sustainable infrastructure.
The session discussed the progress required to ensure all cities are able to access the finance they need to deliver on their climate ambitions. The key messages of the session were the following:
- Cities across the world have ambitious plans to address climate change and deliver a sustainable and prosperous future. However, they face an array of challenges when it comes to financing the projects identified in these plans. Addressing the city finance challenge is an increasingly pressing issue if the world is to deliver on the landmark agreements on climate, development, finance and urbanisation that have been ratified in just the last two years.
- C40 and its partners have developed a range of solutions to address this issue, supporting cities throughout the process of project development and delivery.
- Cities often lack the capacity, knowledge and experience to access the finance that is most suitable to their climate action needs. To this end, the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), a partnership between C40 and GIZ funded by BMZ and USAID, offers technical assistance and capacity development to cities for their climate change mitigation and resilience projects. The session will be an opportunity to discuss its objectives and review its achievements, in particular its support to cycling infrastructure in Bogotá and a clean transportation corridor in Mexico City.
- The Financing Sustainable Cities Initiative is an initiative of C40, the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, and the Citi Foundation, that also focuses on helping cities develop business models to accelerate the implementation of sustainable urban solutions. This initiative supports cities through peer-to-peer sharing, technical assistance and online finance resources.
- However, cities cannot act on their own. More needs to be done at the national, regional and international level to make sure that cities can access finance for their sustainable projects, as outlined in the C40 Call for Action on Municipal Infrastructure Finance.
Speakers:
- Mayor Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro
- Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera, Mayor of Mexico City
- His Excellency Akel Biltaji, Mayor of Amman
- Agnes Dasewicz, Director of the Office of Private Capital and Microenterprise, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Martha Gutierrez, Director of Division “Governance, Crisis Management, Construction”, GIZ